Code Geass - Take two
by CainViBritannia
Summary: Lelouch Vi Britannia had accomplished his near lifelong goal, and died knowing that the world was a better place. But what if god deemed his death unjust, and decided to send him back in time? Find out what happens when the Demon Emperor sets out to raise his army, and face an enemy far greater than Britannia; an evil which neither he nor god himself could have predicted.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:**

**I do not own Code Geass, obviously. Oh well, I hope you enjoy reading.**

**Edit: 8. April, 2014**

**(Extremely late) Warning: This story will be heading towards AU in future chapters, likely from chapter six or seven onwards. Even I'm not sure of how much at this point, but it could range from quite a bit, to extremely AU. The characters will still have their original personalities, with possibly a few minor alterations, or believable, gradual changes in personality. The reason for this decision is the fact that there's so much more to write in AU, what with the origins and roots of Geass, or the Holy Britannian Empire's history, etc.**

**Possibly, or rather very likely, OC's will be added, but rest assured, I will put a LOT of thought into them before even considering adding them, as I, just like many, if not all of you, dislike OC's that are basically there just for one event or plotline to work out and are dead and/or forgotten after that along with some lame excuse. There will still be parts of plot and events from the Code Geass anime, atleast those that I feel the need have to be added, but the story will most likely diverge in later chapters. Moreover, Lelouch (and by extension, many other characters) will gain a considerable amount of power (and by power, I mean the supernatural kind), seeing as he isn't exactly a real threat to anyone (without the Black Knights). Yes, he has Geass and a genius level IQ, but his Geass can only work with direct eye contact, (and reflections and the like, whatever) and I don't think even genius level IQ could save him from a bullet travelling at nearly seven-hundred miles an hour, much less a Knightmare Frame and it's wide array of weaponry, i.e. a blast from a Hadron Cannon. Don't even get me started on Anya's Stark Hadron Cannon; that thing, just... Jesus...**

**Oh, and while we're at Knightmare Frames, he isn't even that good a pilot in the anime. Yeah, yeah, I know; the Shinkiro. But bear in mind he mostly only uses its Absolute Defence mechanism, which requires intelligence and intellect, rather than skills as a Knightmare pilot. And lastly, this story will be heavily focused on Geass itself, as not much is revealed about it during the anime, aside from the obvious.**

**If anything of the above is not to your liking, I suggest you stop reading now, and search for other Code Geass fanfictions that better suit your taste. I sincerely apologize for this late warning as I only just came up with all the above. (This whole story started out as an out-of-the-blue idea and a first attempt at writing fanfiction, rather than having a real plot in mind, but as the story has gotten relatively popular (of course nothing compared to some other stories on this site) and with the positive reviews, I actually put a lot of thought into where this was headed and what it would include.**

**Last but not least; the first few chapters.**

**I'll admit, reading those again was quite a pain; the descriptions are vague, it all seems kind of rushed, and just all in all it was rather unpleasant to read. Please bear with me, as I plan to better that in the newer chapters, and considering English isn't my first language, it's kind of a given. (That doesn't mean that I don't plan on improving upon it as much as I can).**

**Alas, until the next chapter of Code Geass - Take two! (On that note, I should probably change the title aswell...meh.)**

**Chapter one; another chance**

**Prologue**

_So...this is the end, then? _Lelouche Vi Britannia thought with slight amusement as the sword piercing his heart was suddenly jerked out.

He knew what awaited him at the end of the road; for the the world to be at peace, he had to burden all of its hatred, pain and suffering and perish together with it. But, as his slowly dying form stumbled forward to the edge of the dais, he couldn't help but feel a slight bit of regret somewhere in the back of his mind. He would never be able to light fireworks together with his friends, or see his beloved little sister Nunally grow into the fine young woman he was sure she'd be. The dark prince smiled ruefully. He heard the crowd cheer and shout as he fell and slid down the dais, covering the flag of Britannia in his blood.

The fools didn't realize the courageous and virtuous deed Lelouche Vi Britannia had performed in order to ensure peace. But he didn't care, as long as there was peace.

As long as Nunally was able to live in a gentler world.

Said girl was clutching his blood stained garb in utter anguish as she screamed desperate cries, begging her brother not to leave her.

She had found out about the Zero Requiem as she touched his hand; Lelouch made her 'see' all of it. After she found out, regret washed over her. She had called him a demon and a monster, not knowing his true plan to create a gentler world for her. For everyone.

"I love you, big brother! I love you!" She cried as she sobbed into his chest. Lelouch smiled. With that, he could die in relative peace. Knowing that his little sister loved him.

"I...love you, too...Nunally," Were Lelouche Vi Britannia's last words as darkness took him.

"You did quite well, if I do say so myself," a booming voice chuckled. Lelouch's eyes snapped open. He quickly scanned his surroundings and gasped, "No, this shouldn't be possible," he breathed, "Why am I in the world of C?"

The dark prince was currently standing on top of the very platform on which he fought his father. That shouldn't have been possible by any accounts; when a person died, they were assimilated into the collective unconsciousness. So why did he still know who he was?

A booming laughter unceremoniously derailed his train of thought. Lelouch whirled around and searched for the source of the disturbing laughter. "Show yourself!" he shouted. The voice, surprisingly enough, complied, "As you wish." The amusement in the distinctly male voice was very much present.

Lelouch stared in disbelief as a completely black figure with a white mask appeared out of thin air. The mask was akin to those he saw in the thought elevator, white, with a large number of black lines and circles adorning it. There were some differences however, as this mask had two eye-holes with a Geass sigil in each. The sigil was also on the forehead of the mask. Apart from that, and a markedly male build, the figure had no distinctive characteristics.

The dark prince started chuckling, "So, what do I owe the pleasure, god?" As he saw the dark figure twitch ever so slightly, a smirk appeared on his face.

"Sharp as ever, in life as in death," god stated with mirth in his voice. Lelouch asked, "I guess so, but am I really dead? It...doesn't seem like it."

"That's right, you're not dead, atleast, not completely," The amused tone was starting to grate on Lelouch's nerves. "But nevermind, let's get to why I've brought you here." The figure snapped its fingers and two two lavish looking armchairs appeared, one behind each of the two highly interesting individuals present. The dark prince and the figure known as god sat down and regarded each other for a moment. "So, the reason I brought you here is to offer you a choice." God spoke, hands folded in his lap. "A choice?" Lelouch inquired. God nodded, "A chance to redo your revolution, from the beginning."

Lelouch gaped at the dark figure before him, "You...you could send me back in time?" God replied, "Of course I could, don't you humans rely on me for miracles anyway? Besides, I'm indebted to you, for saving me from that accursed construction your father and his brother created." The dark prince considered his words for a moment, and spoke, "God is indebted to me," he sighed and smiled amusedly, "even after my death, for lack of a better word, the surprises don't cease."

"So it seems," came god's reply.

"So, what does this second chance at life entail?" Lelouch asked. Somewhere in the back of his head he was quite surprised at such a conversation taking place.

"I will return you to a certain point in time, and you'll still retain all your current memories." Lelouch nodded. "Also, your Geass will undergo a few...changes," he said cryptically, causing Lelouch to raise an eyebrow, "Changes?"

"Yes, it will be more powerful, and you'll be able to erase and rewrite commands," Lelouch sighed in relief, _I don't need another incident like the one with Euphy._ He shuddered.

"Anything else?" He asked, trying not to remember the massacre he had caused, albeit unintenionally. "Yes," came god's reply, "but, I'm afraid I can't tell you anything else about the powers your Geass will develop."

"How come?" Lelouch asked in slight annoyance. God sighed, "When you killed your father, you gained V.V.'s code, but it wasn't complete, as you didn't assimilate all of it, out of some reason even I do not know of. That fraction of the code wasn't enough to gain immortality, but it was enough to alter your Geass." God gazed off into the vast nothingness of the C world, "You'll have to figure out those changes yourself once I send you back," He turned to Lelouch, "that is, if you accept my offer."

The dark prince considered everything for a few moments, scenario after scenario of how this would play out racing through his mind. "I accept," he stated calmly, "but, may I ask of you a another favors?"

"Go ahead," God spoke calmly.

"Bring Rolo, my little brother, back," God looked at him curiously,"he didn't deserve to die like that," Lelouch's voice was tinged with regret. Even after he had told Rolo that he hated him and that he was merely an imposter taking on the role of his sister, his false little brother gave up his life for him. He didn't want to admit it, but only after Rolo died did he realize how much he meant to him; they were 'real' brothers for a relatively long time after all, and even after his memories returned, Rolo stood by him, aiding and protecting him during his revolution.

"That might prove to be a slight bit difficult, as he will be removed from the future," the dark figure looked contemplative, "I don't know how it will affect the river of time, but it could range from an unnoticeably small ripple to a large alteration of the series of events that will occur," he spoke in a serious tone.

"That's a risk I'm ready to t-" They were both interrupted by a bright flash of light.

"Lelouch?"

The dark prince recognized the voice instantly; it was the very voice that, for the past year, encouraged him when he thought that he couldn't go on, soothed him and grated at his nerves at the same time and a voice that he found a surprising amount of comfort in.

C.C.'s voice.

Opening his eyes, he saw the immortal witch that he'd become so fond of during the past year standing there, regarding him with mild curiosity. Her figure was still as stunning as ever, which was only complimented by her waist long green hair and beautiful golden orbs that were currently locked on him.

"That's the greeting I get after dying?" The dark prince asked playfully. C.C. quickly regained her composure, which she had lost for a moment at seeing someone very dear to her alive and well, even though they should have been dead.

"If you were actually dead, I don't think we'd be having this conversation," She had a playful smile on her face as well, her smooth and cynical voice bringing back memories to Leloch; memories that he truly treasured.

"Shut it, witch," Lelouch shot back, though the smile never left his face. C.C. simply smiled and turned to the dark figure that was observing their interactions with mild amusement, "I take it this is your doing?"

"Of course it is," the figure responded off-handedly, "Who else do you know of that can bring the dead back?" He asked rhetorically. "You'd be surprised," C.C. replied flatly, "Anyway, care to explain what exactly is going on?" God settled back into his seat, making himself comfortable, "I decided to send Lelouch and you back to where it all began."

"Let me guess, because Lelouch is the one and only being that you're actually indebted to and because you feel that someone who sacrificed so much to ensure peace deserves a second chance in life?" She plopped down into the armchair that appeared behind her during their conversation, a smirk on her face. God grumbled something about witches and demons, "Yeah, yeah, whatever," he waved her off.

Lelouch coughed into his hand, bringing the attention of the two to himself. "I think you were about to revive my little brother." God struck a slightly thoughtful pose for a moment, before replying, "Right, just give me a moment."

The Geass sigils on god's mask glowed once again, and after another bright flash, a young boy seemingly around the age of fourteen appeared out of nowhere. He had short, light brown hair and pink-ish violet eyes. Now that Lelouch thought about it, he actually looked like a cross between him and Nunally. The dark prince smiled fondly and stood up.

"Wha-What?" One moment he was in the Shinkiro, dying due to overusing his Geass, then darkness enveloped him, and now he was here, wherever 'here' was.

"Rolo."

He turned around to see none other than his brother, Lelouch standing there, arms open and a smile on his face. A genuine smile. "B-Brother?" Rolo asked in disbelief. "Yes," the dark prince replied with a loving tone.

Rolo felt the tears leaking out of his eyes as he ran towards his brother, nearly tackling him to the ground as he wrapped his arms around him. "I-It's really y-you," He cried into his chest as his brother soothingly rubbed his back, "Yeah, it's me, Rolo," The violet-haired prince replied, not being able to hold back a few tears himself.

The two other figures present simply remained silent, not wanting to interrupt the display of brotherly love. After another few minutes, Rolo let go of his brother and stepped back a little, still sniffling but not crying anymore.

"Brother, what happened? I thought I died..." Rolo was obviously confused as to why he was still alive. Or was it alive again? "You did, bu-" The dark figure who was silent up to now interrupted them, "I hate to interrupt you two, but if you plan on returning, we should attend to that know," God stared at all three of them, seemingly sizing them up for something or another, "staying in the world of C for prolonged amounts of time is...unhealthy, if you do not have a code like C.C. over there."

"I'll explain everything later, Rolo," The dark prince said to his surrogate brother as god stood up from his seat.

"So, are you three ready to return?"

Lelouch nodded and Rolo followed suit. C.C., however, looked thoughtful, "I'd actually like a pizza before w-" She was interrupted by yet another bright flash of light.

As the three regained their momentarily lost eyesight, they found themselves floating, for lack of a better term, through what looked like the flow of time. Images of various events that occured at some point or another sailed past them. Rolo was gazing at said images with curiosity, while Lelouch was staring right ahead with a confident smirk on his face. He turned to his green-haired accomplice to see her arms folded under her ample chest, her face had a look of annoyance on it; she muttered something about stupid gods and pizza.

Lelouch couldn't help but chuckle. For many, what he experienced within the past hour would be considered impossible, mad and completely crazy. But as he flew through the flow of time, revived little brother and immortal witch at his side, he couldn't help but think that what he felt right now was perfectly right.

He started laughing, loudly, catching the attention of both of his companions, "What's so funny?" C.C., who's grumbling about god and pizza was rudely interrupted by Lelouch's laughter, asked irritatedly. The dark prince's laughter slowly died down to a chuckle, and he grabbed both C.C. and Rolo's hands and pulled them close to him, wrapping an arm around each as he still chuckled.

Rolo smiled fondly while C.C. rolled her eyes and giggled.

_Prepare yourself world, for the demon emperor is back!_

AN:

This concludes chapter one, I hope you guys enjoyed reading.

Feedback is much appreciated, as this is the first fanfiction I've ever written. Depending on your feedback, the story will or will not be continued.

The reason I wrote this is that I thought the ending of Code Geass was was quite unfair for Lelouch. I mean, seriously, who deserves happiness more than that guy? Oh well, I'll be happily awaiting your feedback.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I still do not own Code Geass, sadly.**

**I'd like to adress a few things before I begin this chapter. First off, this is going to be a C.C. pairing. They fit together perfectly in my opinion. However, it could turn into a harem, since I saw this on other similar Code Geass fanfictions and it was quite popular. I'll leave that up to the readers, since I wouldn't mind it.**

**I'd also like to respond to CyberPunker's comment regarding Shirley.**

**I don't see the point in reviving her, mainly because she is alive and well at this point in time. Also, I think that Lelouch wouldn't have wanted her to be revived in the first place due to all the bad memories she would have, i.e. her father's death at his hand, him being Zero, and generally everything about Geass. I suppose he would want her to have another chance at life and happiness, in a way. But that's just how I see it.**

**Regardless, thank you, and everyone else, for the positive feedback, it really felt great reading all those reviews since I only just started writing fanfiction.**

**Onto chapter the next chapter of Code Geass - Take two!**

**Chapter two - Where it all began**

"Ouch," Rolo groaned as he fell onto his butt. "Rolo, be quiet," Lelouch scolded his little brother as he scanned their surroundings. The dark prince quickly realized that they were in the abandoned subway below the Shinjuku ghetto. "So, what do you plan on doing now, Lelouch?" C.C. asked him, landing with practiced grace, unlike Rolo.

"We're in the subway below Shinjuku ghetto, which means that I was escaping from the Britannians," he smirked at C.C. playfully, pulled her closer and added, "with you." C.C. blushed slightly at the display of affection.

"Uh, brother, would you mind telling me what's going on now?"

Lelouch let go of C.C. and turned to his surrogate brother, running a hand through his hair, "Well, it's a long story, but basically, after I died, I found myself in the C world; that's where god confronted me and offered me another chance at life, since I saved him from my father, and since he thought I deserved another chance." Rolo frowned, "You...died?" Lelouch smiled nostalgically, "Yes, I had no other choice."

"Anyway, I asked of god to revive you as well...I was a horrible older brother to you, and I'm truly sorry for that Rolo," the dark prince spoke with sincere regret in his voice, "I thought that it'd only be fair to give you another chance at life, as well." Rolo smiled, "Thank you, Lelouch."

A smile spread across the dark prince's face as he reached out to ruffle his brother's hair, "Hey, stop it!" Rolo laughed, truly enjoying being reunited with his brother. C.C. smiled at their antics. This second chance really was a godsend; pun very much intended.

Suddenly, Lelouch perked up, which didn't go unnoticed by C.C. and Rolo. "What's wrong?" C.C. asked him, worried about whatever it was that Lelouch realized. "C.C., the last time we were here, we were escaping from the Britannians after that explosion in the truck, remember?" C.C. nodded, but still didn't know what he was getting at, "Yeah, what about that?"

Lelouch pulled out his cellphone and checked the time, "During the last time, I checked my cellphone to see if I had access to a network," he frowned in thought, "if I remember correctly, the time was fifteen thirty-one." C.C. and Rolo looked at him in confusion. He smiled and showed them the screen of his cellphone.

Fifteen twenty-five.

Rolo seemed even more confused, but something clicked in C.C.'s head, "You mean we could-" she smiled as she realized what Lelouch had in mind, "You've really softened up the past year, haven't you?" Lelouch waved her off, "Can it, witch, we need to hurry now."

Rolo just continued to stare at the pair in confusion. The dark prince noticed his look, "Don't worry about it, Rolo, I'll explain on the way, but for now, we need to hurry." Rolo nodded, "Okay."

With that, the three took off into a seemingly random direction, Lelouch leading the way.

After about five minutes, they reached an old and decrepit flight of stairs. Lelouch signaled for both of them to be quiet as he listened intently. _Perfect,_ he thought as he heard the voices of the group of survivors. He turned to his two companions, who were awaiting his orders that would no doubt follow shortly.

"Rolo, my brother Clovis is currently wiping the Shinjuku ghetto, killing any and all Japanese," Rolo listened carefully, "there's a small group of survivors up there in the warehouse; the last time C.C. and I were here, they were brutally executed by those dogs," his fist clenched at that, "I don't plan on letting them die again, not when it's in my," he corrected himself, "in our power to save them." Rolo nodded, determination in his eyes, "What do you need me to do?" Lelouch smiled as he ruffled his hair again, gaining an annoyed look from his little brother, "I need you to keep them safe down here, until all this is over. Once I've killed Clovis, I'll contact you." He gained a thoughtful look, "Ohgi and the others can take over from there, they helped the other survivors last time, as well." Rolo smirked confidently at his older brother, "You can count on me, big brother."

Lelouch returned the smile, "I know I can," he turned to C.C., "C.C., I need you to come with me." He received a nod from the immortal witch.

They proceeded up the stairs, but Lelouch turned around a last time, "Rolo, stay safe."

Rolo felt a warm feeling in his stomach as he nodded, "You too, Lelouch."

With that, Lelouch and C.C. were gone.

"All of you, hear me!" Lelouch called into the crowd of survivors. They all turned around to see two figures standing in the shadows. The only thing that they could discern was that one of them was male and the other female.

"The Britannians will arrive here shortly, and they'll kill all of you," only now did the full force of their predicament hit them, as the the man before them phrased it so bluntly, "If you wish to live, then listen to me!"

"How do we know you're not one of those Britannian bastards?!" A man around the age of twenty shouted, followed by mumbling in the crowd. "Think about it," Lelouch started calmly, "if I had any intentions of killing you, I would've done so long ago." The group agreed reluctantly, as they saw no flaw in the man's logic. "I promise you that you and your children will be safe; just head down that staircase," he pointed at the flight of stairs, "there's someone waiting for you down there; they will protect you and bring you to a safe place until this is over." The survivors grabbed the only sliver of hope they saw at moment, and made their way to the staircase.

"After all this is over, you will meet up with Kaname Ohgi and his resistance group," the figure hidden in the shadows assured them, as most knew of the resistance group. The very resistance group that would become the Black Knights in the near future. This seemed to have the desired effect on the group, as they quickly disappeared into the subway, where Rolo was waiting for them.

"That went surprisingly well," C.C. stated, generally surprised at how smooth the whole endeavor. "Yeah," the dark prince agreed, checking the time on his cellphone yet again. Fifteen thirty-seven, "The royal guard will arrive here in about a minute," he looked out the large hole in the front wall of the warehouse, "we should do this the same as last time," he said calmly, walking towards the staircase, and sitting down so he was hidden from sight. The dark prince leaned back into the wall, his eyes following C.C. who slowly made her way to him.

She walked up to him, and sat down in his lap, causing the former prince to blush, "C.C.?" His responce came in form of a mischievous smile from the green-haired witch, "Are you uncomfortable, Lelouch?" Lelouch realized that their faces were very close, and looked away, "N-No, I-" She cut him off, "Then be quiet, we don't want to be found out too early."

The dark prince heard the royal guard enter the warehouse. A gruff voice spoke, "Report."

"We didn't find anyone, sir," one of the soldiers replied. The voice of the commander was heard again, "You're sure of it? That exit comes out here?"

"Yes, sir, it matches up with our maps of the old city." Somewhere in the back of his mind, Lelouch expected the crying of a child, followed by gunshots. Luckily, he heard no such thing this time around. _Which means_, he brought his cellphone up to his ear; Shirley would call him any moment now.

...

The ringing of Lelouch's cellphone broke the silence that had itself over the warehouse. Lelouch quickly accepted the call, "I'll call you later, Shirley." With that, he hung up.

Shirley Fenette blinked, not quite realizing what just happened. As she did though, she snapped, "That jerk, he hung up on me!" She glared at her cellphone, "I can't believe it!"

Lelouch was roughly thrown against the wall, the royal guard not seeing the faint smirk on his face. "What an appropriate location for a terrorist to meet his end," the commander sneered. "Still, you did well fo-" he was interrupted by a chuckling, which turned into a full blown, maniacal laughter, coming from the student that they had currently cornered and at gunpoint. The commander glared at him and barked, "What's so funny, boy?!"

The dark prince's laughter died down to a chuckle, "I'm sorry, this just feels awfully nostalgic." He heard a wince from his right, the source of it being C.C., who was roughly seized by two soldiers.

"Let go of her," His voice was icy and had a sharp edge to it. His eyes however, were what made the soldiers seizing C.C. go stiff in fear; that glare he gave them, with the Geass symbols in his eyes burning a fierce crimson almost made them wet their pants as they immediatly let go of the immortal witch.

The rest of the royal guard, including the commander, were in a similar state as they shook like leaves, barely being able to hold onto their guns. Their eyes were locked onto Lelouch's, the Geass symbols almost hypnotizing as he glared at them. As C.C. returned to his side, he issued his command, "All of you," they stiffened, "imagine your greatest fears," they did as commanded, each of them imagining their greatest fear, "Now sleep, and never wake up again." The entire royal guard crumpled to the ground, and started convulsing.

They were all locked in a never ending nightmare, facing their greatest fears for as long as their pitiful bodies would hold on.

"That was...harsh," C.C. commented as she leaned her chin onto the dark prince's shoulder.

"Did they deserve anything else?" He asked with a cruel smirk. C.C. shrugged, "I guess not." With that, she made her way to the staircase that led into the subway.

"Where are you going?" Lelouch called after her. "That woman that will arrive here shortly didn't see me last time; I think we should keep it that way." She replied with a smirk as she disappeared down the stairs.

_Right, this is where Viletta comes in_, the dark prince thought. His lips turned up into another cruel smirk as the Sutherland of the Britannian noble woman blasted through the wall.

Lelouch saw the armor covering the factsphere of her Sutherland retract as Viletta scanned the warehouse, no doubt searching for the terrorists. After a moment of silence, he heard her voice, "What happened here, boy? And why is a Britannian student in a place like this?"

Lelouch smirked, "My name is Alan Spacer, my father is a duke. My ID card is in my breast pocket; after you confirm my identity, I request your protection." The dark prince heard the Knightmare shut down, and with a hiss, the cockpit extended out of its back, with Viletta exiting it with the help of a rope.

"Keep your hands up in the air, I'll take out your ID card." Lelouch smirked; to think this woman was his coach for one year.

The dark prince activated his Geass, "You will hand over your Knightmare to me, and after that," he smirked cruelly, "you will do one-hundred jumping jacks."

"As you wish," she proceeded to hand him her gun, the key to her Sutherland and its passcode. After that, she did as commanded and began her set of one-hundred jumping jacks, "One, two, three, four..."

Lelouch stared at her incredulously for a moment, before bursting into a fit of laughter.

"Was that really necessary?" C.C. asked from behind him, not being able to suppress a cruel smirk herself.

"Not at all," came Lelouch's reply, "Now, let's get going before coach completes her exercise." He chuckled as he walked past her.

"Twenty-one, twenty-two..."

**With Kallen**

Kallen Kozuki was currently fleeing from the two Sutherlands that were chasing her, groaning as the screen that displayed her energy status beeped.

"Just thirty minutes left," she groaned.

The fiery red-head was startled by her comm-unit coming to life, a mysterious voice on the line, "The west entrance, use the tracks to move to the west entrance."

"Who is this?! How do you know this code?!" She demanded.

The voice replied in a bored manner, "Does it matter? If you want to win, you'll have to trust me." Kallen's eyes widened at that, "To win?"

She spotted the bridge on which the train tracks were located, and jumped onto them, heading to the west entrance as the mysterious voice had told her to. "Okay, what do I do know?" She asked the voice, bracing herself as she saw a train right ahead.

She heard a chuckle on the other line, "Since you trusted me, you will win. Jump onto the train."

"Gotcha'," Kallen replied as she jumped onto the train, leaving the two Sutherlands of the Purist faction that were pursuing her to slow the train down to a halt. She turned around just in time to see one of the Sutherlands being destroyed by slash harkens, and the other by a hail of bullets.

"How'd you get hold of a Sutherland?" She asked over the radio, turning around only to see the building where the Sutherland was before empty. At this point, Ohgi and the other key members of her resistence group arrived.

"Kallen, who was that voice on the radio earlier?" Ohgi, their leader, asked her. "He contacted you, too?" She really wondered whom that voice belonged to. Regardless, whoever it was seemed to be on their side.

"Kaname Ohgi, I present to you the cargo in that train; they are tools for your victory."

Kallen wondered how he knew Ohgi's name, but discarded the thought as the group proceeded to open the containers that were loaded on the train. The red-head gasped as she saw what was inside. Sutherlands. "There's more here!" Her companions called as they opened the rest of the containers. All in all, there were more than a dozen Sutherlands at their disposal now.

"Woman in the Glasgow, recharge your Frame; your unit will be running decoy."

"Y-Yes." She replied, still shocked by the massive advantage they had just gained; with this, they could win!

"Time to play this game of war again," Lelouch stated calmly as he observed the battlefield from one of the destroyed buildings.

The fight proceeded much the same as last time, with him playing the soon-to-be Black Knights like chess pieces. More and more of the Britannian forces were destroyed as the battle carried on.

"C.C., I need you to pilot this Sutherland when Suzaku and the Lancelot are deployed." C.C. looked up from where her head was resting on his lap, "Sure, but what will you be doing?" He smirked when he saw a vast amount of enemy forces being buried underground as Kallen broke the ground beneath them, as per his orders. "I'll be paying a visit to earl Asplund before I confront Clovis."

"I don't think he'll hand over his pudding even if you use Geass." She stated amusedly. Lelouch replied dryly, "It's not his pudding I'm after, witch." The demon emperor saw the Britannian troops retreat, which meant that the Lancelot would be deployed in about ten minutes.

"You should get going," C.C. said while standing up and stretching, which was rather difficult in the small cockpit of the Sutherland. "Right, but don't overd-"

"Hey, I'm immortal, remember?" Lelouch regarded her with worry in his eyes, "I know, but I don't want you to get hurt."

C.C. certainly didn't expect that, as she blushed slightly. That blush was increased ten-fold though, as Lelouch leaned up and stole a quick kiss from her, before exiting the Sutherland. The immortal witch was caught off-guard as she stood there, still blushing. Regaining her composure, she noticed that Lelouch was gone, leaving her to plop down into the seat of the cockpit and start up the Knightmare, a faint smile on her still slightly pink face.

"You will let me pass." The dark prince, now disguised as a Britannian soldier commanded the two guards that were posted outside the mobile hangar of the Lancelot. "Yes, sir," the guards replied in unison as they stepped aside, letting Lelouch into the vehicle. Finding Lloyd and his assistant, Cécile, wasn't difficult, as the hangar was rather small. The earl of pudding was currently typing away at his computer, his blue haired assistant at his side. It seemed like the two were observing the Lancelot in action. Lloyd always was fond of that toy of his.

"Shouldn't you be outside guarding this place?" Lloys asked him in his usual...weird tone. Lelouch took his helmet off, "Yeah, well, change of plans," he activated his Geass, "hand over all the research, documents, and information of the Lancelot Knightmare Frame and any other projects you're working on." They both complied and, after a few minutes, handed him various documents and memory sticks. "Perfect," he smirked, putting the helmet back on and exiting the hangar.

**Transport of prince Clovis**

"This is prince Clovis' personal transport, show me your ID!" The soldier guarding the transport demanded. "Let me pass," the dark prince had no time for theatrics; Kallen and the others would be killed if he didn't act quickly now. He had wasted enough time by getting the documents from Lloyd.

"Yes, sir."

Moments later, the cease fire command that Clovis issued was heard all over Shinjuku ghetto, much to the displeasure of the Britannian forces.

"There, satisfied?" Clovis asked annoyedly as the lights went out in the command center of his transport. "Very," the smooth and somehow familiar voice replied without missing a beat. "So, what do we do now? Sing a few lively ballads? Or how about a game of chess?" He suggested sarcastically.

"A game of chess actually sounds good," Lelouch shrugged. Now that he knew the truth about everything, he didn't hold any personal grudges against Clovis. But, he did order the merciless slaughter of countless innocent Japanese. Lelouch would have to think about what to do with him. Should he kill him like last time? Or should he make him join him with Geass? Maybe he wouldn't need his Geass at all for that; he would think this over during their game of chess.

The prince blinked, he didn't expect the terrorist to actually agree to that. "Why do you look so surprised? We used to play chess all the time at the Aries villa, though I would always win," Lelouch chuckled, taking off his helmet. Clovis sneered at him, "Just who are you?"

"It's good to see you again, brother," his helmet was off now, revealing his midnight-black hair and violet eyes, "Lelouch Vi Britannia, at your service."

**AN: Phew, worked on this into the early morning hours. What can I say? I was flattered by all the positive reviews the first chapter received, which drove me to complete this chapter as soon as possible.**

**As always, reviews are much appreciated.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three - The right choice**

"Lelouch Vi Britannia, at your service." The dark prince smiled; a genuine smile, "It's good to see you again, big brother."

Even though Clovis acted snobbish towards anyone outside of the royal family, he was still a good person. A man who loved his brothers and sisters dearly; Lelouch and Nunnally even more so. The dark prince had enjoyed the many games of chess they had played as children, or the games of hide-and-seek in the beautiful gardens of the Aries villa with Euphy and Nunnally.

Clovis couldn't believe his eyes. He had thought that Lelouch had died; killed by the Japanese. That was the main reason he had come to Area Eleven and acted so harshly and discriminatingly towards the Japanese; he thought they had taken his dear brother and sister. Yet here said person was, leisurely walking towards the set of chess in the corner of the room, not one care in world, as it seemed.

"L-Lelouch?" He gasped.

Lelouch was already setting up the chess board on the table that served as a map for the command center. "Are you coming?" He asked in a tone that was more befitting of a casual conversation about the weather. Clovis nodded dumbly and made his way to his supposedly dead half-brother.

Said half-brother had just finished setting up the pieces as he leaned back into his chair, a smirk playing across his lips, "So, big brother, have you gotten any better since the last time we played?"

Clovis, having recovered from the fact that his half-brother wasn't dead, answered with a similar smirk, "I like to believe that I have, though I'm probably still no match for you, Lelouch."

"Yeah, I suppose that's true."

Clovis smiled as fond memories flooded his mind, "The only one that was ever able to beat you was brother Schneizel, and even he had a hard time at that." He moved his pawn forward two paces and sighed, "I...I thought you were-"

"Dead?" Lelouch interrupted him, "You were right, I _was_ dead, but let's talk about that later." The dark prince advanced with his knight, smirking at how true his previous statement was. Clovis nodded, and a thought came to his mind, "Lelouch, if you're alive does that mean-" Lelouch interrupted him again, "Yeah, Nunnally's doing just fine; we've been living with the Ashford family for the past few years," he smiled. The current viceroy of Area Eleven sighed in relief, a smile appearing on his face, "That's great; we should depart for the homeland as soon as possible."

"I'm afraid I'll have to decline." Lelouch replied off-handedly as he took one of his opponents pawns. His half-brother stared at him blankly, "W-Why not?" Lelouch sighed, "Clovis, do you know why Nunnally and I have been hiding here for the past seven years?"

Clovis shook his head, as expected. "Those bastards that we used to call parents had abandoned us here, using us as political bargaining chips." Lelouch moved his king forward.

"But, Marianne-" Lelouch clenched his fist, "Marianne deserved to die; the world is a better place without her." That confused Clovis; the two people Lelouch loved most were his mother, Marianne, and his sister, Nunnally. So why was he glad that the former was dead?

"Clovis, I'll tell you this much," the dark prince stared off into nothing, "Our father doesn't care about either of us, or any of his children. He's focused on pursuing that foolish goal of his; he wants to live in a world without a future." It sounded very cryptical, if Clovis' look was anything to go by.

"Let us complete our game, I'll explain everything to you afterwards." Clovis nodded, his brow furrowed in thought as he planned his next move.

The game ended just as expected, with Lelouch as the victor. The dark prince had to admit though that his half-brother had improved quite a lot since their last game. Clovis sighed fondly as he reminisced about their childhood. He was shaken out of his thoughts by Lelouch's voice, "So, Clovis, do you really wish to know the truth about our father, and the death of my mother? I will only warn you once, what I'll show you will change everything."

Clovis gulped, but nodded. "Good, then, let me show you the lie you have been living up until now." The demon emperor held his hand out to his brother, his Geass activated and glowing omniously.

**With Kallen**

"Hey, Kallen," Ohgi whispered to her as they were escorted out of the battlefield that was the Shinjuku ghetto, by none other than the Britannian troops they had fought against not ten minutes ago.

"What's up?" She whispered back.

"Do you think it was that guy on the radio that made Clovis order a cease-fire?" Ever since that mysterious voice had contacted them, it seemed like one miracle followed after another.

"Yeah, who else would it be?" She glanced back at the transport of the prince, _just who are you?_

**Command center**

"No..no, i-impossible," Clovis was currently kneeling on the floor, his face one of shock and disbelief. "Do you realize now? Do you realize who our father really is?" Lelouch asked from where he was sitting. Clovis just continued to stare at the floor in disbelief, barely registering the words of his half-brother. The dark prince had shown him the truth about their father, but not enough to reveal his little time-travel.

"Tell me, Clovis, why do you hate the Japanese?" Clovis' head snapped up and he stared at Lelouch with wide eyes. "Why do you encourage the fact that they are beaten up and discriminated on the streets every single day?" The prince stared at the floor as he spoke with a small voice, "I-I thought that they had...they had killed you and Nunnally..."

"As you can see, I'm perfectly fine, as is Nunnally." The viceroy of Area Eleven felt ashamed of himself. "Clovis, do you see how wrong you were?" The demon emperor stood up and moved towards his half-brother, who seemed to shrink in on himself.

"That means...up until now, everything, my whole life...was a lie?" The dark prince winced slightly at his tone; he wanted to spare Clovis from such a torture, but he had to know the truth. He deserved to. "Yes, we were both lied to and deceived, by that bastard of a father."

"But...what do I do now...?" He asked, feeling despair slowly take him, enveloping him like an inky darkness; it wasn't everyday that it was revealed to you that the life you had been living up until this moment was nothing but a lie.

"Join me." His head snapped up once again. "Atone for what you did and join me, Clovis." In that moment, as Lelouch held his hand out to him, he didn't just see his brother offering him help, he saw a chance; a chance to live a life without lies and deceit, a real life. It was a ray of light that drove away the darkness that was still further enveloping him.

The viceroy smiled weakly and grabbed his hand, letting himself be pulled into a hug by Lelouch, "It's good to have you back, big brother." He felt the darkness of despair dissipate as he was bathed in a bright light.

"Yes," he agreed, "it's good to be back."

As they let eachother go, Lelouch pulled out his cellphone and dialed a number, "Rolo, it's me," he sighed wearily, "everything's okay now, you can get the civilians to Ohgi; I'll send you his location now," he tapped on the screen of his phone a few times. "Okay, after you're done, sneak into my room in Ashford; don't let Sayoko or Nunnally see you," with that, he hung up.

"What are we going to do now?" Clovis asked his half-brother.

"Well, first off, you need to die." Clovis blinked, and blinked again, before shouting, "W-What?!" Lelouch laughed at his reaction, "Don't worry, you don't really need to die," he assured him, "we just need to fake your death."

Clovis sighed in relief, then a thought struck him, "Why do I need to die? I could help you from my position as viceroy."

"No," Lelouch replied, "we need you to abandon that position in order to get Cornelia and Euphy to Area Eleven." Clovis nodded, and Lelouch noted a slight bit of worry in his eyes. "Don't worry, we won't do anything to harm them." That had the desired effect on the prince as he relaxed visibly.

"So, how do we fake my death?" Lelouch considered a few methods, but in the end discarded most of them. "I honestly don't kn-"

"Leave that to me." The two brothers turned towards the entrance of the command center, and spotted a certain green-haired witch, who was smirking mischievously.

Clovis snapped, "Y-YOU!" Lelouch quickly grabbed his brothers shoulder, "Clovis, don't, she's with me." The viceroy stared at him incredulously, before turning back to C.C., who was calmly walking towards Lelouch.

"Thank you, _darling_," she cooed and kissed him lightly on the lips, much like he had before, in the Sutherland. Clovis' incredulous stare increased in intensity before he decided to turn on his heels and make his way to his throne, plopping down onto it. "Today is just too stressful," he grumbled.

_You have no idea, _Lelouch thought while rolling his eyes. "Anyway, I take it you have an idea of how to fake Clovis' death?"

"Of course I do," she replied smoothly and walked towards Clovis, who began to fidget under her gaze. "W-What are you doing?" The viceroy asked, a drop of cold sweat running down the side of his face. The immortal witch gently laid her hand on his shoulder, which made him flinch. A red glow began to emit from the Geass symbol on her forehead as she activated her code.

"W-WHAT?!" Clovis, and surprisingly enough, Lelouch shrieked in unison; the latter with a less high pitched tone, however. There, right next to C.C. stood a perfect replica of Clovis, though less...alive; he was swaying dangerously and his eyes were dull, devoid of any life. "Oh, right, you two didn't know about _that_ power of mine." She still had that mischievous smirk on her face. "It's basically a copy of Clovis, his cells and all," her brow furrowed in thought, "it should be able to hold on until after the whole affair with Clovis' assassination." With that, she pulled out a gun and shot the fake Clovis without a moment's hesitation.

Lelouch sweat-dropped at the action, while Clovis fainted with a "GAH!" at seeing, well, himself getting shot rather unceremoniously. "C.C..." the dark prince paused, "...I don't even know what to say," he confessed. C.C. walked over to the unconcious Clovis and threw him over her shoulder, she then turned to Lelouch, "We had to fake his death, right?" The demon emperor sighed, "Yeah, but-"

"Then I do not see the problem, let's go." She walked past him to the exit of the transport.

Lelouch stood there for a moment and muttered, "Damn witches and their sorcery." He proceeded to follow C.C. out of the transport, leaving 'Clovis'' dead form to be discovered by his subordinates.

**Outside the Ashford estate**

"So, this is where you have been living all these years?" Clovis had regained conciousness a few minutes after they left his personal transport, after which he fell unconscious again; courtesy of a certain green-haired witch. As they reached the gates of the Ashford academy, he had come back to the land of the living yet again, this time deciding to stay.

"Yeah," Lelouch smiled at the sight of the Ashford academy, "I don't know where Nunnally and I would be if it weren't for the Ashfords." Clovis smiled, "I'll have to thank them, then."

C.C. interrupted them, "No, you will not, idiot." Clovis snapped, "What?!" The immortal witch regarded him with a bored look, "You're dead, remember?" The former viceroy wanted to reply, but couldn't find anything to say that wouldn't make him look like more of an idiot "Right, I forgot." _You should be glad you're not actually dead, _Lelouch thought, remembering the last time he had confronted his half-brother.

They reached the main doors of the Ashford estate, and Lelouch quickly let himself and his two companions in. "The Ashfords sure have a good taste in interior furnishing," Clovis commented absently as he saw the mansion-like building from inside. Before they arrived at the door which lead to the dining room, Lelouch turned to C.C., "C.C., I need you to head up to my room, I can't let Nunnally and Sayoko know of you just now." C.C. pouted cutely and asked in a mock-hurt tone, "Are you not going to introduce me to them?" Lelouch pulled her into a hug, "I will, but not yet." The dark prince smirked as he pulled out his credit card and handed it to C.C., "Knock yourself out, just be quiet about it." She smiled like a child on Christmas, grabbed his credit card and raced up to his room.

Lelouch sweatdropped before turning to his half-brother, "So, are you ready to see Nunnally?" Clovis smiled at the notion of finally seeing his half-sister again, "Yeah, let's go."

The door to the dining room opened with a hiss as the two brothers entered. They were greeted by the sight of Nunnally and Sayoko, who were drinking tea and folding Origami, a smile on both their faces as they turned to the door.

"Welcome back, mas-" Sayoko stopped mid-sentence as she spotted the person behind Lelouch. She quickly stood up and entered her battle stance, brandishing a kunai in her right hand.

Lelouch glanced at her, "Sayoko, it's alright." She seemed to have wanted to protest, but did as told and sat back down, trusting her master. "Big brother, you're back!" Nunnally exclaimed happily. "Yeah, it's good to be back," the dark prince blinked back the tears that threatened to pour out at seeing his beloved little sister again, "I've got a surprise for you, Nunnally." She held a finger to her chin, "A surprise?"

Lelouch smiled as he and Clovis walked over to Nunnally, the latter feeling the tears starting to percolate in his eyes. "Here," Lelouch gently grabbed her hand, and brought it to Clovis'. Nunnally's brow furrowed in thought as she felt the hand, and gasped as she recognized who's hand it was, "Brother Clovis!"

"Yes, Nunnally," the former viceroy felt tears roll down his face as he knelt down and embraced his sister after such a long time. Nunnally returned the hug, still slightly shocked by the fact that Lelouch had brought Clovis to their home.

"I thought that we had to keep your existence a secret to anyone in the royal family," Sayoko whispered to Lelouch as she smiled at the scene before her. Lelouch, too, was smiling as the two siblings were reunited, "Don't worry, he's no longer a threat to us." The ninja/maid nodded, trusting his judgement.

"It's been so long, Clovis," Nunnally had tears rolling down her cheeks as well as she held onto her half-brother whom she hadn't seen in more than seven years. Clovis smiled; a smile he didn't have on his face for a long time.

They let go of each other after a few moments, both of them still smiling fondly. "You've really grown, Nunnally," Clovis commented as he sat down next to Lelouch. Nunnally's smile widened even more, "Thank you, but, why are you here, Clovis? Aren't you the viceroy?" She, too, wondered why Lelouch had brought their half-brother here when he had told her that no-one in the royal family could know of their existence. "Not anymore," Clovis answered, "Lelouch convinced me that I was better off with you two." He gave Lelouch a smirk, which the demon emperor returned. Suddenly, his eyes widened a fraction, "Oh, right, don't worry if the news reports me dead tomorrow; we faked my death." Nunnally tilted her head to the side, "Why did you do that?" Lelouch was the one to answer, "Nunnally, all that matters right now is that we have our brother back, but be sure not to let this get out," he glanced at Sayoko, who nodded. Nunnally pouted, an incredibly cute action, but agreed, "Okay, I trust you two." Lelouch and Clovis sighed; their sister was much smarter, and in some instances much more devious than they gave her credit for.

Lelouch glanced at the clock, which read half past ten, "How about we continue this reunion tomorrow? It's getting quite late," he yawned. "Should I prepare a room for our guest, master?" Sayoko asked in her usual polite tone. "Yes, I'd appreciate that, thank you, Sayoko," the dark prince replied with a smile.

...

Lelouch glared at Clovis and elbowed his side, "T-Thank you, miss." Sayoko's smile widened as she nodded. "I'll bring Nunnally to bed, then," the demon emperor stood up and stretched, moving behind Nunnally's wheelchair. "Goodnight, Sayoko, Clovis," she smiled as Clovis once again kneeled down to hug her, "Goodnight, Nunnally." With that, the two siblings left the dining room.

"Lelouch?" The dark prince was laying Nunnally into her bed, "Yes, Nunnally?" His sister smiled, "I don't know how or why you did it, but I'm glad that Clovis is back." Lelouch pulled the covers over his sister and smiled, "Yeah, me too." He bent over and kissed her forehead, "Goodnight, Nunnally, I love you." Nunnally gripped his hand and replied "I love you too, big brother." Lelouch smiled as a tear rolled down his cheek. Exiting her room, he quickly wiped the tear away and headed to his own room.

As he was approaching the door to his room, a familiar smell assaulted his nose; one that he had smelled the majority of the entire last year. Pizza. _Well, I did tell her to knock herself out_, he thought. _Oh well, probably isnt that much anyway._

His assumption was proven incorrect as soon as he open the door to his room, and found himself in a veritable maze consisting of high stacked pizza cartons. _What the hell was I expecting? _He thought with a sigh as he made his way through the maze to where he thought his bed was located. As he found his bed, he saw C.C. and Rolo sitting on it, a carton of pizza between them as they both chewed on a mouthful of pepperoni pizza. "Oh, hey, big brother," Rolo greeted his brother after he swallowed his bite of pizza. C.C. just looked up at him with a blank face, "Lelouch, when are you going gambling again?" The demon emperors eye twitched, "Why do you ask?" The immortal beauty took another bite of pizza before replying flatly, "Your account is empty."

Lelouch felt his eye twitch again, albeit much more violently, before exploding, "C.C.!"

**Ashford dorm**

"Hey, did you hear that?" A student asked her friend as they were all violently woken up by a furious roar.

"Yeah, what do you think it was?" Just as she finished, another student burst into their room, "Did you guys hear that?!"

"You heard that, too?!" She replied.

"Sure did, the whole school is awake," as he said that, more students were heard from the corridor, wondering about what the hell it was that woke up the whole dorm in the middle of the night.

**AN:**

**There you go, another chapter, as per the overwhelmingly positive reviews. I have to admit, even though this chapter was a pain to write, I had a lot of fun writing it. I also had a difficult time figuring out what to do with Clovis, but I think I made the right choice.**

**Yes, reviews are still very much appreciated.**

**Until the next chapter of Code Geass - Take Two!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Firstly, I'm sorry for the rather long absence; I was busy with college and had a kind of writer's block, I guess you could say. Anyway, I'd like to clarify that there will be no harem in this story. Most of the reviews were against that, so, yeah, that's that. Secondly, my decision to leave Clovis alive. That decision got a couple negative reviews, mostly due to how easily he was 'forgiven' for what he did to C.C.**

**The reason I let Clovis live, was that I saw no point in killing him, really.**

**Here's the reason why, which is again my view of things.**

**Lelouch had pretty much lost everything at some point. His friends, his family (Clovis, Nunnally, Rolo, Euphy, etc.), his mother, who he thought was dead, but turned out to be alive and actually just as corrupted as his father, and even the Black Knights. So, it would only seem logical that he'd treasure family and friends more than anything if he had a chance to start anew. That's also part of the reason I returned Rolo as well in this story.**

**Now, as for Clovis specifically; yes, he had performed experiments on C.C.. ****But do you really think it was that bad for her? She was killed god knows how many times, and also in the most gruesome of ways, i.e. iron maiden, guillotine, burned alive at a stake, etc. Don't forget all the emotional pain and scars she has because of her immortality, such as being betrayed by the one person she thought had cared about her; the nun that gave her Geass, only to use her to end her own immortality. Besides, in the anime, C.C. is rather indifferent to almost everything. She also mostly agrees with Lelouch's plans, adding her own improvements here and there but ultimately agreeing to them. Do you think when she'd see Clovis she'd go all, "No, Lelouch, kill Clovis because he hurt me,"? Firstly, that's extremely out of character for her, and secondly, she trusts Lelouch to make the right choices.**

**You might see this differently, but this is how I see it. **

**I apologize for this rant, but I just wanted to clear up any misunderstandings regarding Clovis.**

**Chapter four - Masquerade Ball**

Lelouch stirred slightly as he felt something warm weighing down on his chest. Opening his eyes, he quickly noticed that that something was C.C., sleeping peacefully as she snuggled into his chest. He smiled, and blushed as he noticed that she was wearing little more than her undergarments. The demon emperor brought his hand up to brush some strands of hair out of her face, revealing her beautiful features.

The immortal witch stirred and yawned, "Good morning, Lelouch." She leaned up and kissed him lightly. The demon emperor smiled and relaxed. After all that happened the past day, relaxation was something the trio really deserved. The dark prince blinked and propped himself up slightly, searching his room for his little brother. A smile spread across his features as he spotted him on his couch in the living room, sleeping rather peacefully.

"So, what's the plan for today?" C.C. asked as she stretched, pushing her breasts out in the process. Lelouch blushed at the sight and reluctantly tore his gaze off of her assets. "I think we can proceed as we did last time for today," C.C. nodded absently.

"By the way, C.C., I suppose you know that we'll have to find out more about Geass eventually, right?" The demon emperor decided that as soon as he had returned. He needed to know more about his Geass and its new abilities, and also about Geass in general.

"Yeah, I know," C.C. replied as she drew absent circles on Lelouch's chest, causing pleasant shivers to run down his spine. "In that case, we'll have to travel to Egypt."

"Egypt?" Lelouch raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, that's where the first legends of Geass sufaced from," her brow furrowed in thought, "If I'm correct, that's also where the thought elevator I have a connection with is located."

"Wait, you didn't receive your Geass or your Code in Egypt, so why would it be there?" The demon emperor looked confused.

"The connections are established randomly through the collective unconsciousness, so, even if a person receives his Geass or Code in, say, Japan, the thought elevator that they are connected to could be anywhere else in the world." Lelouch nodded, and pondered about where his thought elevator could be.

"Just think about it," C.C. interrupted his thoughts, seemingly reading his mind, "You'll feel a kind of pull in your mind." The demon emperor nodded again and did as told; thinking about his thought elevator. He felt a slight pull in his mind, and gave in.

The demon emperor found himself in a pitch black darkness, which was suddenly illuminated by a bright white flash. Images started flooding his mind, images of huge pyramids and vast deserts. He saw the Nile river in the evening sun of Egypt, reflecting the sunlight in beautiful shades of orange and red. The images continued, showing an old and decrepit pyramid, and lastly, a huge, gate-like structure.

The thought elevator.

His eyes snapped open, and he spotted C.C. staring at him curiously. The immortal witch spoke, "Strange, your thought elevator seems to be near mine, or exactly the same, even." She shrugged and snuggled back into his side, "Saves us the trouble of travelling to another far-away and probably very troublesome place."

Lelouch regarded her for a moment before shrugging and relaxing as well, "I guess."

"...This is nice," C.C. admitted as she yawned, enjoying how close they were. "Yeah, it is a nic-"

They were interrupted by the obnoxious ringing of Lelouch's cellphone. Sighing, the dark prince reached for it and read the name on the display. Milly. With yet another sigh, he accepted the call and brought the phone to his ear.

"GUTS!"

"GAH!" With a yelp, he fell off the bed. The demon emperor rubbed his head and glared at his cellphone, which was lying a little distance away from him. He grabbed it and brought it back to his ear, replying flatly, "You know that damned spell won't work in a million years, right?"

"Are you coming?"

"...Yes."

"See? It worked!" Milly replied happily before she hung up. Lelouch simply sighed and stood up, still rubbing his aching head. "Right, you have a council meeting now, don't you?" C.C. asked him, lying on the bed with the blankets barely reaching her knees due to Lelouch pulling them off as he fell. The fact that she was almost completely bare made for a very alluring sight.

Lelouch gulped and blushed at the sight, "Y-Yeah..."

C.C. smiled wickedly before putting up a mock pout, "Don't you want to...stay here with me?" The dark prince's mouth was suddenly very dry as he tried to come up with an answer. He continued staring at her seductive form for a few moments before regaining his cognitive functions, "A-As much as I'd like to, I can't."

"Are you sure?" The immortal witch asked with in a hurt voice and another cute pout. Internally though, she was very much enjoying teasing poor Lelouch. Her reply came in form of a rolled up shirt being thrown into her face as Lelouch raced to the bathroom. "I'm sorry, C.C., but you left me no choice!" She heard him call from the bathroom. Shrugging, she put on his shirt and fell back into the bed, "Don't forget to go gambling soon!"

Annoyed grumbling could be heard from the bathroom.

Lelouch re-entered the bedroom after fifteen minutes, rubbing his hair dry with a towel. The demon emperor quickly noticed that C.C. had fallen back asleep again and moved to the bed.

_She really is beautiful..._ he thought absently as he sat down on the edge of the bed. This action caused the sleeping beauty to wake up once again, before spotting Lelouch and smiling mischievously.

She propped herself up, "Need your shirt back?"

"Yeah, and..." He moved closer to her and embraced her tightly.

"Not today," he whispered in a soft tone, "but when I've introduced you to everyone and got everything sorted out..." He blushed and let go of her.

C.C. smiled as she regarded his slightly flushed face, "I understand," her smile turned mischievous again, "and I can't wait." Lelouch blushed a little more, but leaned forward and kissed her deeply.

They both broke the kiss a couple moments later, their lungs demanding oxygen. "So," Lelouch started, his face slightly flushed from the kiss, "can I have my shirt back?"

C.C. giggled and took his shirt off, handing it to him a moment later. "You better get going, or that woman will barge into here and cast some more spells on you." The dark prince gulped; knowing Milly, she probably would barge into his room if he wouldn't show up.

"Yeah, well, see you later, and please, don't go wandering around this time." C.C. waved him off and made herself comfortable again, "Keep an eye on Rolo, as well." With that, the dark prince was gone, leaving a dozing Rolo and a smiling C.C. in the room.

"Changes, huh?" Lelouch thought aloud as he pulled out his cellphone in one of the many hallways of the Ashford academy. He brought a hand up to his eyes and activated his Geass, using the screen of his cellphone to look at them. There weren't any visual differences, though he thought that they flashed a light shade of gold for a moment. Discarding that thought, he proceeded into the student council meeting room.

Nina was typing away at her computer, Shirley was writing on a sheet of paper, Rivalz was doing...nothing in particular, and Milly was looking at him with scrutiny.

"You're late," she stated the obvious.

"Sorry, pres'," Lelouch winked at her before taking a seat next to Shirley. Milly blinked, and blinked again before blushing slightly, which luckily went unnoticed by the council members. The student council president cleared her throat, "A-As you all know, we need to come up with a fix for the club activities budget."

Before any of them could argue about how late they were informed, Lelouch stood up and handed her a few sheets of paper with a smirk, "Here's the plan for the next semester, it should leave all the clubs with sufficient funds for any and all of their activities."

The student council members stared at him incredulously and with open mouths. Milly was the one to break the silence, "H-How did you..."

Lelouch smirked as he sat back down and leaned back, "It was quite simple actually, I just checked all the clubs expenses and found out that some clubs had more than they needed," he smiled, "that alone solved most of the budget problems, but I also went ahead and handed each club's president improved plans for their fund-raising activities. All in all, there should be surplus of budget in every club, leaving them with enough money for activities _and_ trips within the clubs at the end of the semester."

During the whole explanation, their mouths kept opening wider and wider, causing the meeting room to fall into silence again. The silence didn't last long as Milly broke it once again, "Now _that's _what I call guts!"

The dark prince shook his head with a smile, "Call it what you want, Milly, in the end it really just was common sense." The student council president waved him off before babbling excitedly about her spell working and whatnot.

That seemed to loosen the other council members up as well, as Nina went back to whatever it was she was doing on her computer with a light smile. Rivalz continued staring at Lelouch with a little admiration in his eyes, "I forgot Lelouch was a genius; lazy, but a genius."

Shirley nodded absently as she, too, stared at Lelouch, who was currently arguing with Milly again.

"So, pres', what do we do now?" Rivalz asked as they still had council meeting for another hour or so. Milly turned to him with one of her trademark smiles, "Now? Now, we party!" The collective student council members sweatdropped, save for Lelouch, who was chuckling lightly, "You really haven't changed a bit, Milly."

The student council president smiled fondly as she remembered their time as children. What she didn't know was that that statement had two meanings.

"Anyway, we have another reasons to party, so it has to be something special." She smirked at all of her fellow council members, "Come on, guys, throw out some ideas!"

_Hm...this is going differently than last time, but it shouldn't matter that much,_ the dark prince thought, _might as well go with it._

After nearly an hour, Milly was standing behind the table, arms spread on it and head dropped down, "No, no, no," she shook her head, "we need something...extravagant."

They had all suggested a multitude of ideas, but most were shot down due to their sheer costs, or the time it would take to set them up. Lelouch decided to release Milly from the torture, "How about a masquerade ball?"

Milly's head snapped up, staring at Lelouch with wide eyes that had a frightening glint in them, "YES!" The members of the student council winced.

"It's Perfect! It wouldn't cost too much and it would take as good as no time to set up, and we can hold it in the student council clubroom!"

The three teens once again stared at Lelouch, before Rivalz spoke up, "What's up with you today?" Lelouch raised an eyebrow and smirked, "What do you mean?"

"Don't give me that, you hardly ever lift a finger regarding these kinds of things, yet here you are having completed the plan for the budget before we even knew about it, and then the idea with the ball..."

Lelouch just smirked again and leaned back, "I just think logically, is all." That vague explanation hardly explained why he knew about the budget problems before them, but Rivalz decided to drop it.

"This is perfect!" Milly interrupted them again, "Do all of you agree with Lelouch's idea?"

"Yeah, sure," Rivalz replied with a shrug. Nina and Shirley nodded, "Yeah."

Lelouch smiled; this time around, he would enjoy every moment he spent with his friends, "In that case, we'll be heading to class," he stood up and stretched, "You and the other club presidents can handle the organization, right?"

Milly gave him an exaggerated thumbs-up, "Of course, you guys make sure you're dressed nicely and have a mask for tonight," she looked at Lelouch and Shirley with a suggestive smirk, "don't forget to bring a date, as well."

Shirley looked at Lelouch, who stared back at her blankly, before she realized the implication and blushed a bright red, sputtering nonsense as she tried to duck down into her chair.

Lelouch shrugged and headed for the door. As he was about to leave, he turned around and smiled; a rare, genuine smile, "I'm looking forward to tonight, everyone." With that, he left for class, leaving the student council baffled once more.

"Lelouch," Rivalz started, "looking forward...to something?" He looked at his fellow council members, hoping that one of them would have an idea or explanation as to what the hell was wrong with Lelouch.

"I...I guess he really is looking forward to it, huh?" Milly asked herself more than anyone else as she furrowed her brow in thought; the mere concept of Lelouch looking forward to something like that was alien to them, to say the least.

She snapped out of her momentary daze and checked the clock that hung on the wall behind her, "Class is starting in ten minutes, you guys should leave now."

She sat down at the table and began excitedly writing down something most likely regarding the masquerade ball. The remaining council members shrugged before leaving the meeting room and heading for class as well.

As Lelouch and the other members of the student council entered the classroom, they noticed that the whole class was abuzz, talking and speculating about the news regarding the terrorist attacks and usage of poison gas in Shinjuku.

All of that was complete nonsense, of course.

_Idiots,_ Lelouch thought dismissively as he walked over to his usual seat and sat down, turning to the group of girls that were crowded around a certain red-head.

Kallen.

Lelouch smiled as he remembered his time with her when they were Black Knights; all the missions and battles they had fought together to free Japan from Britannia and create a better world.

"What's up, buddy?" Rivalz shook him out of his thought as he popped up from beside him, following his gaze to Kallen. "See something you like?" His long-time friend poked him in the side with his elbow, a smirk on his face as he, too, stared at Kallen, though out of entirely different reasons than his Lelouch.

"It's not like that, you know," the demon emperor started with a bored expression on his face, "I was just thinking about showing her around, since she wasn't here last year and because she'll be joining the student council."

Rivalz blinked at him, "How do you know that?"

"Remember the 'other special event' Milly mentioned earlier in the meeting room?"

"Yeah," Rivalz replied as he continued staring at Kallen.

"That's what she meant," Lelouch said flatly as he stood up, "Anyway, I'll see you later."

Before Rivalz could inquire as to where Lelouch was going when their class was starting in about five minutes, he was already gone.

"Are you sure you're okay, Kallen?" One of the girls around her asked her as she, much to her displeasure, put up the role of the sickly, meek girl that she had to be at school.

"I'm fine, really, I just have to take it easy for a while," Kallen replied, holding back her anger at being treated like an invalid even though she wasn't. She looked up as she noticed a rather handsome guy heading towards her and the group of girls surrounding her.

Said group of girls fell silent as the schools resident heart-throb approached them with a smile that made most of them blush slightly, "Hey, do you mind if I borrow her for a while?"

The girls stared at Kallen for a moment before whispering to eachother excitedly and turning back to Lelouch, "Sure, no problem." They encouraged Kallen to go, since there weren't many people who Lelouch would approach and show interest in so openly.

Not that Lelouch was interested in her in _that_ way.

"Thanks," Lelouch winked at them before turning and leaving with Kallen. The girl's faces heated up even more as they chatted excitedly as to what the schools 'prince' would want from Kallen.

"C-Can I help you?" Kallen asked in a meek voice, which, unbeknownst to the red-head, didn't only bother her, but the person infront of her as well.

The dark prince sighed; putting up with this was going to be really difficult for as long as it lasted, "Please, just drop the act, it doesn't suit you."

The red-head's eyes widened for just a moment before she went back to that show she put up, "I-I don't know what you mean."

The dark prince sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Forget it." He smiled at her warmly, "I just wanted to ask you if you've already joined a club."

Kallen discarded the suspicions that had arisen from what he had said earlier and shook her head, "No, I don't really think I can join any club because of my sickness." God, how she hated this act; she'd much rather be out fighting against the Britannians alongside Ohgi and the other members of their resistence group.

Lelouch chuckled lightly, which seemed to irritate her; she really hated these kinds of people, and most, if not all Britannians in general. "Yeah, I figured, that's why I wanted to ask you to join the student council."

Kallen tilted her head to side slightly, "The student council?"

"Yeah, but don't be fooled by the name; there's hardly any work most of the time, and since all students are required to join a club you might as well join the student council." The dark prince smiled at her once again, "think about it, it won't be taxing in the least, and the people there are really fun."

Kallen took a moment to think about it; it would certainly be better than the other clubs, if what this guy was saying was true. Which brought her to the person infront of her.

How did he know that her act was just that; an act? She really did her best to act like that, even if she did despise it. Plus, no-one had found her out until now, and then this guy comes along and just finds out in less that two minutes? And that voice...it seemed familiar...

Kallen realized that she had been staring at the person in front of her during her monolouge, and blushed slightly before looking away.

_Barely a few minutes and she's already on to me, huh? _Lelouch thought with amusement as he smiled at the blushing ace Knightmare pilot in front of him, "So, what do you say?"

Kallen quickly composed herself, before hesitating for a just a moment and replying, "Yeah, I think I'll join."

Lelouch chuckled lightly, "Great," he held his hand out infront of her, "I'm Lelouch Lamperouge, vice-president of the student council, nice to meet you."

Kallen smiled back before reaching up to grab his hand, "Nice to meet you, as well, I'm Kallen Stadtfeld."

Suddenly, it clicked; that voice, it seemed to be the one that contacted her in Shinjuku, and most probably also arranged that cease-fire order. Kallen quickly shook that thought out of her mind; it couldn't be him...could it?

_I'll figure it out later, but if he really knows who I am, I'll have to take care of him_, the red-head thought as she let go of his hand.

"So, how about I show you around the school?" The demon emperor checked his cellphone; class had already begun. "You know, since you weren't here last year."

Kallen stared at him incredulously; was this guy for real? "But class has already begun..."

The dark prince simply shrugged, "Hey, you were absent for a year, do another couple lessons really matter?" She was inclined to agree, since she found school incredibly boring anyway, but then she thought about how Ohgi had told her to play nice in Ashford.

"Besides, our grades are on the top of the class, so it really doesn't matter." With that, he turned and began walking down the hallway.

"As vice-president, shouldn't you be attending classes?" Kallen asked with a slight smirk as she quickly caught up to him, deciding to ditch class.

Her ebony-haired classmate simply chuckled, though not in that 'nice guy' manner from before, "On the contrary," he smirked mischievously, "as vice-president, I'd say I have certain freedoms regarding skipping classes and whatnot." He shrugged, "Anyway, let's begin the tour of the school."

With that, the demon emperor and the ace Knightmare pilot decided to ditch class and went on on their tour of Ashford academy.

**Meanwhile**

"God, I'm bored," Rolo groaned from where he was lying on the floor, playing catch with himself with a little softball he had found in Lelouch's room. Since his arrival at the Ashford estate, he hadn't done much. Nothing, to be exact; but he didn't want to go against his brothers orders.

"We'll just have to wait for Lelouch to introduce us to everyone," C.C. responded dryly, being bored out of her mind as well; right now, she would have been out getting on Lelouch's nerves, but, as established before, she and Rolo had to stay here.

She was willfull, very much so, but not stupid.

"I guess..." came Rolo's reply as he continued throwing the ball up and catching it, thinking of ways to make this rather pointless game interesting.

They both perked up as they heard a knock on the door. In the blink of an eye, they were both on each side of the door.

"I-It's me, Clovis."

C.C. and Rolo relaxed a fraction as the immortal witch unlocked the door an opened it. The former viceroy was startled as he saw C.C., who smirked at his reaction and let him in.

"Lelouch isn't here," C.C. stated flatly as she plopped back down on the sofa, staring up at the ceiling. Yes, that's how bored she was; which was understandable, considering she couldn't order pizza right now.

"I know, b-but it's not Lelouch I came for..." C.C. noticed that he was fidgeting slightly as he stood there, which was rather uncharacteristic for the former viceroy and prince. Then again, she remembered the talk she and Rolo had with Lelouch, regarding his half-brother...

**Flashback**

Lelouch, C.C. and Rolo were currently in the dark prince's room, Lelouch standing in the middle of the room, with C.C. on the bed and Rolo on the sofa, as they just finished discussing a particular subject.

Clovis.

Rolo and C.C. let all the information Lelouch had given them sink in.

He had told them all about Clovis and their childhood. They had found out that the former viceroy actually had a timid personality, but was a caring and kind-hearted man, even if said kindheartedness only applied to members of the royal family. The dark prince mentioned all the times he would come over to play chess, only to be defeated time and time again by his younger half-brother. All in all, they found out that Clovis was actually a good person, even if he took the wrong path in life at one point.

"So, that's how it is..." Rolo muttered absently as he stared off into nothing, trying to figure out what he should think about Clovis. Of course, even if he wanted Clovis to die, it would ultimately be Lelouch's decision and he would abide.

C.C. seemed to be in much the same condition as she thought about the whole situation.

Lelouch looked down on the floor, his eyes hidden by his midnight-black bangs of hair that fell into his face. The dark prince spoke in a weak voice, which was heavy with emotions.

"I'm sorry, you two..."

They looked up at him, surprised and worried at the tone of his voice, "I...I should've at least talked to you before I...confronted Clovis."

The dark prince looked up at C.C., who, together with Rolo, flinched slightly at the pained look on his face, his eyes deep pools of conflicting emotions, "Even after what he did to you I-"

He couldn't bring out another word as C.C. stood up, walked over to him, and slapped him.

Hard.

Lelouch and Rolo were both momentarily in shock, Lelouch's eyes wide open and Rolo gaping at the scene infront of him.

"Idiot, if I had any objections, I would've told you so long ago," she sighed, "Besides, what happened has happened, and," she gazed into his violet orbs with her own golden ones, "You've already lost enough...I really don't mind," she held his cheek with one hand before hugging him tightly.

The pain all but vanished from the dark prince's face as he returned the embrace.

Rolo smiled as the two stood there for another few minutes, before Lelouch let go of C.C.

He sat down on the recliner chair and smiled brightly at the two people infront of him, "I...thank you, both of you," his tone was lighter now, "I'm really glad that I have you two beside me through all this."

The immortal witch and Rolo shared a quick glance before smiling brightly at the person they cared about so much.

**Flashback end**

"So, what is it you came for, then?" C.C. asked off-handedly, not paying attention to the nervous blonde standing in the middle of the room.

"I...well, I-I wanted to apologize, actually..." He flinched slightly as C.C. turned to stare at him, her face an emotionless mask, "Go on."

The former viceroy sighed wearily, "Lelouch had told me that we needed a new start, now that we're working together," he looked at her directly now, "he also told me what you meant to him," the immortal witch cocked an eyebrow at that, the other one soon following in surprise as the former viceroy lowered his head, "Please accept my deepest apologies, C.C.."

C.C. regarded him for a moment, before yawning, "Sure, whatever."

Clovis' head snapped up as he stared at the immortal beauty with wide eyes, "W-What?! That's it?!"

"Well, what did you expect me to say?" She replied coolly, "It's as Lelouch said, we need to work together efficiently, so let's just leave all that behind."

"I guess..."

"Anyway, I don't suppose you have any money on you?" C.C. asked him in a lighter tone, all the tension from before gone.

The former viceroy blinked before checking his wallet, which indeed did have money in it, "Yes, I have some money, why?"

"I want to order pizza," She replied flatly.

Clovis was about to argue that this was the last he had, as emptying his royal bank account wouldn't have been exactly subtle, before Rolo elbowed him in his side and whispered, "You better order her that pizza if you know what's good for you." With that, he went back to playing catch with himself and, to make it more interesting, with the wall.

The former viceroy looked back at C.C., who was giving him a smile that made a shiver run down his back, "S-Sure, here you go," he handed her the wallet.

C.C. quickly grabbed a phone and chose speed dial one; Pizza Hut

**Student council clubroom**

"And this is the student council club room," Lelouch stated as they entered the clubroom, only to find it filled with people preparing it for the masquerade ball that would be held that night, "It's also used for various other events, such as the masquerade ball tonight."

Kallen turned to him, "Masquerade ball?"

Lelouch chuckled, "Yes, as a celebration of you joining the student council," he leaned forward a bit, "but really, our president just really likes to party."

Speaking of the devil, Milly entered the clubroom, discussing the preparations of the ball with other club presidents. The other student council members soon followed.

She looked up from the clipboard in her hand and smiled at Lelouch and Kallen, "Hey, Lelouch, thanks for bringing Kallen."

Lelouch smiled back, "No problem, pres'."

Milly now turned to Kallen, still smiling, "Hey there, I'm Milly Ashford, president of the student council, nice to meet you."

The ace Knightmare pilot returned the smile, "Nice to meet you, as well."

One after another, the other student council members introduced themselves as well, and, just as last time, Rivalz pulled out a bottle of champagne, much to Shirley's displeasure as she tried to snatch it away from him.

_I hope atleast _this _plays out like last time,_ the dark prince thought amusedly as the bottle did indeed end up in his hands. Only this time, he didn't bother pointing it away from Kallen as the cork popped off, which she deflected expertly.

Unlike the cork, though, the champagne that she was showered in couldn't be deflected that easily, what with being liquid and all.

**Later...**

"This is why hate Britannians..." Kallen grumbled under the shower as she washed the champagne out of her hair.

A knock on the bathroom door interrupted her thoughts, "It's me, Lelouch, I brought you a change of clothes."

The red-head drew the curtains and replied, "You can come in, I've drawn the curtain already."

With a hiss, the door opened and the dark prince entered the bathroom, admiring the form of the silhouette behind the shower curtains. He quickly shook those thoughts away and carried the change of clother over to the basket near the sink, "Ah, I'm sorry about all this, they can be a little over the top sometimes."

Kallen continued washing the alcohol out of her hair and from her body, "It's okay, nothing wrong with cutting loose every once in a while."

"These are my clothes, I hope you don't mind," Lelouch said as he put them down into the basket.

The red-head replied, "It's cool." She paused for a moment, "That was fast, you went all the way to the boys dorm?"

"Actually, I live here," the dark prince started, "it'd be pretty difficult for Nunally to live in the dorms, so the principal let's us stay here."

"I see..."

"Well," Lelouch smirked and started for the door, only to hear her call out, "Hey, wait!"

The ace Knightmare pilot reached out from the behind the curtain and pointed at the small, pink pouch lying on the sink, "Could you hand me that pouch?"

His smirk widening, he went back over to the sink and grabbed the pouch. The demon emperor leaned back against the wall and handed Kallen the pouch.

Well, at least he would have if she didn't violently grab his wrist and jerk it out of his grip.

His smirk didn't leave his face, even as heard her pick the pouch up and slide the knife out of it.

"Were you the one in Shinjuku?" She asked in a dangerous tone.

Lelouch had to suppress a small chuckle as he replied, "What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb!" She hissed, causing Lelouch to quickly bring a hand up to his mouth to keep it shut. At that moment, the phone next to Lelouch rang. "You know, someone will come if I don't answer it," he said with the same smirk, knowing exactly what would happen in a few moments.

"Hello, Ashford academy student council."

...

"Oh, it's for you." Kallens eyes widened as Lelouch passed her the phone, "He says he knows you." She hesitated for a moment, before carefully taking it and bringing it up to her ear, "Hello?"

"Glad you're still alive, Q1." Her eyes widened yet again as the figure known as Zero continued speaking, even though Lelouch was standing right infront of her, facing away from the shower.

"Who are you?!" She demanded, "How did you arrange that cease-fire order?!" Before she could get a reply, he hung up. Kallen growled slightly, "Hey, don't hang up!" She jerked the phone to the side, effectively taking the shower curtain with it and revealing her nude form to Lelouch, who, unlike last time, took a moment to ogle at the red-head, before quickly facing away again with a smirk.

"Cease-fire, huh?"

_Shit_, Kallen cursed internally as she tried to weasel her way out of this. Lelouch did the job for her, "Let me guess, an online game?"

"Y-Yeah, you know, 'cause I've been shut up in my house for so long..." She let go of his wrist as he pulled his arm back, before speaking in an amused tone, "You know, I can see you."

The poor girl only now realized that the curtain was drawn back and that Lelouch would have had a great view on her, if it weren't for him looking at the bathroom door.

She failed to notice the hint of pink on his cheeks, though.

With an 'eek', she pulled the curtain back and dropped down in embarassment, a blush spreading across her face.

Lelouch smirked mischievously before heading to the door, which opened with a hiss. He chuckled as he called back, "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." With that, he was gone, leaving Kallen to her thoughts.

"I was wrong..."

**Later...**

"The council really doesn't require much actual work," Lelouch said as he and Kallen walked through one of the hallways leading to the clubroom, "The only real work is the occasional paperwork regarding school events."

Kallen nodded, "Like the cultural festival?"

Lelouch chuckled, "Yes, that and the other perverted excuses of events that pres' organizes, such as the crossdressers ball and the swimsuit day." Though Lelouch had to admit that the latter was quite enjoyable.

Kallen deadpanned, "What's up with that?"

Lelouch just waved her off, "Blame our pres, you'll be spending a lot of time with her, by the way." With that, they entered the clubroom again, Kallen silently hoping that she wouldn't be soaked in alcohol this time around.

The two were greeted by the sight of the student council members and Nunnally sitting around one of the tables they had set up, having a small celebration now that they were done with the preparations for tonight.

"Hey, Lelouch, Kallen," Milly greeted them as they sat down.

"Hello, big brother!" Nunnally chimed as Lelouch sat down next to her and gave her hand a soft squeeze.

"Hey, Nunnally," Lelouch smiled, before looking over the whole clubroom and whistling, "You guys certainly did a good job."

"Yeah, I guess we did," Milly commented before turning to Lelouch with a mischievous grin, "So, how was your date, Lelouch?"

Kallen and Shirley immediatly blushed, the latter began to stutter, "D-D-D-Date?!"

Milly still had that had that mischievous smile on her face. _So, you want to play it that way, huh?_ Lelouch thought as he smiled.

"It was really great, thank you."

Kallen and Shirley blushed even more, while Rivalz doubled over laughing, not expecting that from Lelouch.

Nina and Nunnally just smiled, Lelouch's little sister having it figured out already.

The dark prince gave Milly and equally mischievous smirk as he turned to Kallen and Shirley, who were in the middle of arguing.

"W-Why were you two on a d-d-date?!" Shirley.

"It-It wasn't a date, ok?!" Kallen.

"Then what was it?!"

"He was just showing me around the school!"

They continued arguing for another moment before they were interrupted by the laughter of a certain blonde-haired president, and an ebony-haired vice-president.

"W-What's so funny?!" They both demanded in unison.

The demon emperor wiped a tear from his eye as he replied, "I was just kidding, Shirley, I really was just showing Kallen around."

"Told you so!" Kallen huffed as she crossed her arms under her chest, while Shirley seemed to be shrinking in on herself, her face a furious shade of red.

The laughter of the others slowly died down and Lelouch spoke, "Anyway, I'll be heading to my room now," he stood up and walked behind Nunnally's wheelchair, "You coming, Nunnally?"

She nodded, "Yeah, I'm a little tired..."

Lelouch smiled, "Sure," her turned back to the others, "well, we'll see you guys tonight."

"Don't be late, alright?" Milly said while Rivalz and the rest said goodbye. Well, the others minus Shirley, who was still blushing in her seat.

"Don't count on it," Lelouch waved her off as he and Nunnally headed for their rooms.

**Later...**

"Big brother?"

Lelouch smiled as he pushed her wheelchair down the hallway that led to her room, "Yes, Nunnally?"

"What happened?" She asked, causing Lelouch to raise an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"It's just that you seem so happy lately," Nunnally said with a smile; her brother wasn't normally in such high spirits, so it was a welcome change.

"Oh, well, I-" She interrupted him, "...Do you have a girlfriend?"

Lelouch stopped for a moment and regarded his sister, who was smiling innocently. The dark prince smiled, "Yes, I do." Nunnally's face brightened up, "Really? Who is she? Are you going to introduce her to us?" Lelouch shook his head with a wry grin, "Easy there, Nunnally," they arrived at her room, "I will, but not yet."

His sister gave him a cute pout before smiling, "Ok, Lelouch."

He carefully lifted her out of her wheelchair and into her bed, "I'll send Sayoko later to wake you up and get ready for the ball, ok?" The dark prince bent down and kissed her forehead softly.

"Yeah, see you later, Lelouch." She smiled as she quickly grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze.

The demon emperor stood up and walked over to the door, which opened with a hiss, "Sleep well, Nunnally."

_Right, I need a something to wear for tonight_, Lelouch thought absently as the door to his room slid open with a hiss.

The dark prince found Rolo and C.C. playing catch with that softball he had lying around and smiled. The two looked up and sighed in relief.

"Finally, I thought you'd leave us here to die from boredom," C.C. commented dryly as she threw the ball back to Rolo, who spoke in a bored tone as well, "Yeah, it really was quite boring being holed up in your room for the whole day."

Lelouch sighed, "Well, I've got good news for you," he smirked, "something that'll relieve you of your boredom."

"Oh really?" C.C. asked flatly, "And what would that be?"

"A masquerade ball."

Both of them stopped their game at that, and Rolo asked, "A masquerade ball?"

"I suppose that was you're suggestion," C.C. inquired with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Of course," the dark prince replied smoothly, "If it's a masquerade ball, you two and Clovis can join in on the fun, without risking revealing yourselves." His brow furrowed in thought, "Thought we'll probably have to use wigs along with the masks, just to be sure."

"Great," C.C. said happily as she headed for the door and turned around once more with a mischievous smile before she left, "I'll be there."

Lelouch blinked, and shrugged a moment later, pulling out his cellphone and calling Sayoko, "Hey, Sayoko."

"My lord, is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, I just wanted to ask if you could organize dresses for Clovis, Nunnaly, me and a friend," he listed off Rolo's sizes. The dark prince gave Rolo a wink, which his brother returned with a thumbs up.

"Of course, is it for a special event?"

"Yeah, it's for a masquerade ball tonight, so we need masks and wigs as well."

"Alright, is that all, my lord?"

"Yes, that's all," he paused for a moment, "Oh, right, could you tell Clovis about it and wake up Nunnally to help her get ready before the ball?"

"Of course."

"Great, thanks a lot, Sayoko, I appreciate it."

He put his phone back in his pocket, "I wonder where that witch headed off to..."

Rolo shrugged, "She said she'll be there, so we needn't worry, right?"

"I guess so," Lelouch replied as he shook himself out of his thoughts, and checked the time on his cellphone; they had more than four hours left.

Perfect.

"Brother, what do we do now?" Rolo asked, having already figured out that the ball wouldn't start in less than four hours, as most started at night at around ten o'clock.

"Now we can actually go over that information I got from Lloyd in Shinjuku," Lelouch said with an evil smirk. Those documents held all the information on the Lancelot and possibly other projects that Lloyd had discarded last time around. In short, they would give him a huge advantage during his 'second' rebellion.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot about those," Rolo said as they headed into Lelouch's study room.

The dark prince pulled out a small case from one of the drawers, on which a little scanner was built in; he brought it up to eye level and activated his Geass, which apperantly caused the device to come to life as it scanned his eye.

With a 'beep' and a green light, the case hissed open.

Rolo stared at him in curiosity, and the dark prince quickly explained, "A souvenir, from Clovis' Geass research division." Rolo nodded and followed his brother to his desk.

Said brother continued to take out the various documents and memory cards from the case, placing them on to the desk.

He halved the stack of papers and handed one of them to Rolo, keeping the other half for himself, "We'll look through one half each, that'll make it easier."

Rolo nodded and took the stack of papers from his brother, taking a seat next to him at the desk as the two began going through the papers.

**Later...**

More than three hours had passed since the brothers had began their search, and they had yet to find anything.

"Found anything yet?" Rolo asked Lelouch as he went through another set of documents; most of them had been about the Lancelot, which they already knew. What they were looking for was something else. Something that Lloyd abandoned or just didn't have the time to complete last time around.

"No, nothing...you?" The dark prince put aside another few documents as he sighed; it seemed like there wasn't anything else there aside from a few other projects that weren't really useful to them, and of course information on the Lancelot.

"No, not rea-" He stopped mid-sentence as he came across a rather unusal sketching of what looked like a miniature Knightmare Frame. Upon closer inspection, it seemed like a sort of exoskeleton. His eyes widened as called out to his brother, "Lelouch, take a look at this."

"What is it?" Lelouch asked as he quickly moved to his brothers side, inspecting the sheet of paper that he handed him. As he read the contents of that simple sheet of paper, his eyes widened with every bit of information. The demon emperor quickly grabbed the other documents which he thought were associated with this project and went over them carefully.

"It seems to be a sort of Knightmare, just in form of a suit, or an exoskeleton," Rolo said as he, too, went over the documents. Lelouch nodded as he examined the vague details regarding the Knightmare 'suit'.

Rolo's eyes widened once again as he found another document that cought his eye. This one seemed to be a type of sword, though unlike the Maser Vibration Sword, it seemed to consist of pure energy, as opposed the combination of both energy and metal in the former. It was also extremely smaller in size, fitting into the hand of an adult.

"Here, check this out," Rolo handed him the information on the sword, "It seems to be a sword consisting of pure energy, powered by a...it seems like a Core Luminous," Rolo frowned in thought, "Though the energy would be-"

"Too chaotic in nature to stabilize and maintain the blade..." The dark prince muttered as he went over the vague bits of information. It seemed like these were more experiments and ideas than solid projects, though they weren't completely useless.

"As interesting as these are, I don't think they can actually be engineered to a functioning state," Rolo stated as he continued going over the documents.

"Not necessarily, think about it," he continued staring at the sketching and informations on the sheets of paper, "A Knightmare in form of a suit..."

The dark prince quickly filed away the documents, "We'll go over these again later, but for now, let's get ready for the masquerade," he checked the clock, "we only have an hour left, and Sayoko should have everything ready by now."

"Right," Rolo nodded as stood up and stretched, "Really though, it was a good idea of you to get all this information; it could grant us a huge advantage."

Lelouch was about to reply as his cellphone rang. The dark prince pulled it out and checked the display.

Sayoko.

He quickly accepted the call and brought the phone up to his ear, "Hey, Sayoko."

"My lord, I have everything ready," she said in her usual soft and polite voice, which never failed to calm the dark prince's nerves.

"Great, did you give Clovis his set of clothes?"

"Yes, and I left the other two infront of your room," Lelouch heard Nunnally in the background, "I'm helping prepare Nunnally now."

Lelouch sighed, a smile spreading across his face, "You have no idea how grateful we are to you, Sayoko."

"It's my pleasure, my lord."

"Still, thank you, Sayoko." With that, they ended the call.

Lelouch turned to Rolo with a smirk, "Time to get ready."

**Later...**

A knock on Lelouch's door shook both the demon emperor and his brother out of their thoughts as Lelouch called, "Come in." They spent the last hour getting ready, what with there only being one shower in Lelouch's room.

They wouldn't have recognized the man that entered if it weren't for him not wearing his mask, which he was currently holding in his right hand. His usually blonde hair was covered by a hazel brown wig of similar length.

"Are you two ready?" He asked in an impatient tone as he tapped his foot on the floor repeatedly, "We're already late, you know."

The two waved him off and Lelouch replied, "Look on the bright side," he smirked, "We're sure to make one hell of an entrance."

The three brothers regarded eachothers set of clothes with a satisfied smirk. "Let's go, then," Rolo said as he made for the door, the other two brothers quickly following behind.

**Ballroom**

Milly gazed upon the ballroom with a proud look on her face, which was partially hidden by a mask.

The whole room was decorated beautifully, and filled with students and teachers that were all masked; some dancing, some having a drink at the tables that were covered in various drinks and foods, and some just chatting.

There was a band playing music at the end of the hall and the mood was very light and relaxed; Milly's events, though mostly perverted and silly, were still very much welcome among the students and teachers. With the masquerade ball that wasn't perverted or silly in the least, Milly, or rather Lelouch, had really hit the spot.

The students and teachers thoroughly enjoyed such a peaceful and laid back night; a welcome change to the usual school nights.

"Oh, sorry," an orange-haired girl that had a beautiful, blue dress on apologized as she bumped into Milly, who instantly recognized the person due to her haircolour and voice.

"Relax, Shirley, it's me," the student council president smiled.

"Oh, I didn't recognize you, pres'," the orangette said, admiring the elegant dress that Milly was wearing.

"Which is the point of a masquerade ball," Milly giggled lightly, "By the way, have you seen any sign of Lelouch?" She frowned slightly, "I told him not to be late."

Shirley replied, "No, I've been looking for him as well." Milly cocked an eyebrow and smirked at the orangette, who quickly blushed, "I-I mean-"

At that moment, the door at the top of the staircase flew open.

The students and teachers in the ballroom stopped dancing, the band stopped playing music and all the conversations were dropped as they turned to the large door and gasped at the sight of the three, male figures that appeared there.

The three figures just stood there for a moment, very much enjoying the attention that was currently focused on them.

The one in the middle had long, shock-white hair that went down a to just above the height of his shoulder blades. He was wearing a black shirt, which contrasted with his mane of white hair and had a high collar that was unbuttoned at the top. Over that, he wore a long jacket, which wrapped around him in an almost cloak-like fashion.

The edges of it were trimmed in silver, just as the cuff-links of the jacket. The mask he wore only added to his mysterious look; it only covered the upper half of his face and the sides of it flowed back and ended in a fairly sharp curve that turned upwards. It also went to just above his eyes, which were a startling violet, leaving the white bangs of hair to fall over his forehead and slightly over the mask. Colourwise, the mask was a deep black, with layers of silver ornaments covering it and curving up and down in sharp turns that went over the borders of the mask.

Three deep black onyxes were embedded in it.

All in all, he looked stunning, the mysterious look only adding to that fact.

The person on the left had hazel-brown hair, which flowed down to just beneath his shoulders. He wore a white shirt, with a deep blue jacket over it. Unlike the one of the person beside him, it was more ornate, but less cloak-like, with silver cufflinks that had rubies embedded in them. The edges were trimmed gold and silver, and the back of it flowed down like a cape. He also wore a simple pair of light-brown slacks.

The mask he wore was similar to that of the person in the middle, though it had softer curves, as opposed to the other one, and it's colour scheme was blue with gold ornaments. It also had three rubies embedded in it.

Just as the the other man, he looked very handsome in the garb that he was wearing.

The third person of the group was a little less taller than his two companions, though no less stunning as far as his attire went.

He was wearing a white shirt, which was also unbuttoned at the top. It had green and gold stitchings, which stretched along the length of the shirt like vines. His jacket was a deep, emerald green, also trimmed with gold and silver. The jacket itself was simple and short in size, not having cape or cloak-like features like those of his two companions. His short hair was a deep, midnight-black, barely reaching his shoulders. His pants were white, with green stitchings near the pockets.

The mask he wore was also similar to those of the other two, but was white and had green and golden vines slithering along it. The mask had three brilliant emerald fitted into it.

Even though the person was rather short, and looked to be around fifteen, there was no doubt that he looked just as handsome as his companions.

The person in the middle spoke with a smirk, swinging his arm out in a smooth, slow motion, "Please, don't stop because of us." With that, the three figures headed down into the crowd, who got over the shock and continued whatever it was they were doing as the figures entered the room.

"You really do like to make an entrance, do you not?"

Lelouch smiled and turned around, already realizing who it was.

Milly was standing there, wearing a beautiful and elegant dress which was a light shade of orange. Her hair was neatly done up, and her mask was seemed a like a female version of the one Lelouch was wearing, though in a light orange. She was wearing white gloves, that covered almost the entire length of her arms, and an extravagant, diamond necklace.

In short, it fit her perfectly.

"I do try," The dark prince replied smoothly, and with an exaggerated bow, gently grabbed and kissed the back of her hand, "May I have this dance?"

Milly, to her credit, only blushed slightly and replied just as smoothly, "Of course."

The dark prince smiled and led her to the dance floor, but not before quickly whispering to his two companions with a smile, "Go and have some fun, you two."

"You know, this really brings back memories," Milly said as they settled into the slow rhythm of the song.

_Found out already, huh?_ Lelouch thought amusedly as he spun Milly in time with the music, and tried to make a confused face, "I don't know what you mean."

The student council president smirked mischievously and whispered, "Oh, drop it, Lelouch," she leaned back as he gracefully dipped her down, "I only know one person that would make such an entrance."

"I suppose so," he smiled and swept Milly across the dancefloor, noticing that more than a few pairs of eyes were locked on to them.

The blonde Ashford heir seemed to notice as well, as she smirked at the wide eyes of the crowd, before focusing on Lelouch again, "Though I am lost on who your two...companions are."

This time, it was the demon emperors turn to smirk mischievously, "That I cannot tell you, Milly."

The dance came to an end and both Lelouch and Milly were slightly out of breath, as Lelouch suggested, "Do you want to get a drink?"

Milly nodded, "Sure."

The two went to one of the tables for a drink, and Lelouch spotted Rolo and Clovis both dancing with two girls that he noticed were in his class. The dark prince smiled as he slowly sipped his drink.

"Your friends don't seem to have a problem getting the attention of the female student body," Milly commented from beside him with a light giggle.

_I'll really have to thank Sayoko again for these outfits_, the dark prince thought with amusement. "It seems that way."

"Though, I have to admit you look quite stunning yourself," she said, shaking him out of his thoughts.

Lelouch smiled, "Thanks, you look really beautiful as well."

Milly blushed a little and thanked him, before the dark prince turned back to the crowd of people.

"So, have you seen the ot-" Lelouch stopped mid-sentence as he noticed that Milly was gone. Shrugging, he drank the last of his drink and couldn't help but think about a certain green-haired witch, _Where the hell are you, C.C.?_

He smiled as he spotted a familiar girl in a wheelchair, a smile on her face as a maid handed her a glass of punch. It was difficult making his way to her while rejecting all the girls that wanted to dance, but he made it there in the end, "Are you enjoying yourself, Nunnally?" He whispered into her ear from behind her.

The young girls face brightened up before she whispered back, "Lelouch!"

She giggled happily, "Yes, it's really fun...though I wish I could dance with you as well..."

The dark prince gently squeezed her hand, "One day, Nunnally, we will be able to dance together, I promise."

"I can't wait," she chirped. "From what Milly told me, you're not having trouble finding girls to dance with you," Nunnally stated with a sly grin, one that was rare for her, but one that Lelouch knew all too well.

"Yeah, well, Sayoko did a great job with the outfits," the dark prince looked up at Sayoko and both of them shared a smile.

"I thought that it would look perfect on you, my lord," she said with that same smile still on her face.

"Well, you were right," he looked back into the crowd of students, "thanks a lot, Sayoko," With that, the demon emperor disappeared back into the dancefloor.

The ball continued into the night, with the three brothers dancing with another few people before they decided to take a time out, much to the dissapointment of the various female students that wanted a chance with them as well.

"Having fun?" Lelouch asked his brothers over another glass of punch.

Both of them smiled and Clovis replied, "I am used to these kinds of events, but it is still very amusing." As viceroy, he was invited to many balls, which were a common event for him. The fact that no-one knew his real identity made it all the more amusing.

"Yeah, it's really fun," Rolo commented as he finished his drink, "I think I'll go for another dance."

His two brothers agreed as they, too, headed for the dancefloor again, where they were almost immediatly crowded by girls that wanted to dance with them.

As Lelouch was about to agree to a dance with one of them, he heard a voice speak up from behind him; a stuttering, feminine voice that he recognized all too well.

Shirley was standing behind him, looking at the floor with a prominent blush on her face. Lelouch immediatly realized what was going on, _Damn it, Milly._

"Umm, uh, I-I wanted to a-"

The stuttering orangette was interrupted by the doors to the ballroom swinging open once again, as a female figure entered the room in a confident stride.

The male crowd began to drool as they got a closer look of the beauty.

Long, black hair was flowing down her back like an obsidian waterfall. Her dress was a deep, dark blue in colour, with the sleeves widening and flowing down below her wrists.

The shoulders of the dress were 'puffed up' and cut down into her chest in 'V' cut, showing off her generous assets.

Her midriff was bare, as the dress had a prism-shaped cut over the abdomen, adding to the alluring sight that the woman presented.

Layers of black and dark blue fabric that were traced with silver made up the skirt of her dress, alternating and enlarging as they went on down to her ankles.

Her mask was black, with silver and dark blue roses stitched on it, which seemed to blossom at certain points along the mask. To complete it, a single sapphire was fixed in it. Slightly hidden from view were her two brilliant golden orbs, which really seemed to complete the whole outfit.

With an air of grace around her, she slowly made her way down the staircase, the many pairs of eyes following her as she approached a certain white-haired man.

Said man had forgotten everything around him as he smiled at the figure that approached him gracefully.

As she reached him, she gave him her trademark mischievous smirk as she asked him, "May I ask you for a dance?"

The man bowed down gracefully and took her hand in a gentle manner, kissing the back of it and smirking at the beauty, "Isn't it custom for the man to ask the lady for a dance?"

She rolled her eyes, before replying in a smooth voice, "I never really cared much about customs."

The dark prince straightened up as he still held her hand, "Then, it'd be my pleasure."

With that, the white-haired man led the mysterious beauty to the dancefloor, holding her hand in his own. The crowd quickly vacated the floor, moving back to the chairs and tables at the sides of the hall as the two figures reached the middle.

Clovis silently made his way to the band, who had stopped playing yet again, and whispered to them in a hushed tone. The members of the band nodded and started to play a rather fast paced song, which was a dance for couples.

In short, perfect for this dance.

"Can you keep up?" Lelouch asked her in a challenging tone.

"Please," came her smooth reply.

With that, the two spun into the steps of the dance.

They both admired the other skills, as they moved with a fluid grace and intesity that could only be acquired through years of practice. The dark prince figured that she must have picked up dancing at one point during her immortal life, since she was holding her own very well.

Lelouch of course had learned to dance when he was still a child, being a prince and all. The many balls Milly organized only helped to improve his dancing.

The witch and the demon focused all their attention on eachother as they swept along the ballroom in time with the music, the fluid grace with which they moved leaving more than a few of the onlookers wide-eyed.

As the song wound to it's end, both of them were a little out of breath and had slightly flushed faces. The two were surprised as the crowd began to applaud them cheerfully, having forgotten about everything except for themselves and the music. As the clapping died down, the graceful beauty turned to her partner, leaned up and kissed him lightly on the lips, much to the displeasure of both the male and female student bodies, and especially a certain orange-haired girl.

But Lelouch didn't care, even as she parted the kiss and stepped back.

"Thank you for the dance, demon," she said with a mischievous smirk.

"It was my pleasure, witch," he replied with a similar smirk.

Without another word, the woman left the ballroom, leaving the students to crowd around Lelouch, inquiring and speculating about who the beautiful woman was.

**Ho-ly shit. That was a long chapter.**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading, and again, sorry for the late update. Also, shout out and thanks to tartyoab for proof-reading this chapter and correcting any grammatical errors.**

**Reviews are much appreciated.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: As much as I would like to claim I do, I do not own Code Geass.**

**Chapter five - Return of Zero**

"My girlfriend."

Deadpan.

That was the expression on all the faces of the students that were currently crowded around a mysterious, white-haired man. Now that they thought about it, it really wouldn't be weird for this man and that equally mysterious and beautiful woman to be dating.

It was just the manner in which they interacted that slightly confused them...well, that and the jealously that arose in more than a few students of both genders.

"Now, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to enjoy the rest of this ball." With that, the mysterious figure made his way to one of the various tables on each side of the festively decorated ballroom, his two companions following behind.

The students, not seeing any reason to keep on bothering the person, dropped the subject of the demon and his witch.

It wasn't that they'd have a chance with either, now that they knew the two were together.

As they reached the tabled, Clovis poured himself a drink. "She really is your girlfriend, what with that overly flashy entrance earlier," the former viceroy remarked with a smile as he sipped his drink.

Rolo snickered slightly as his brother replied in an amused tone, "Yeah, well, we did pick up a few things from eachother."

Now that he thought about it, he was sure that he'd gotten a lot more perverted after spending over a year with the immortal witch, which wasn't surprising in the least. Shaking that thought away, he poured himself a drink aswell as he watched the ball return to normal.

Well, relatively speaking; the ball had lost all normalcy it had retained, which wasn't much to begin with as it was organized by the perverted and mischievous student council president, Milly Ashford, as soon as Lelouch and his brothers had entered the room.

The dark prince shrugged and took a sip of his drink, not paying attention to the orange-haired girl that slowly made her way to the group of three.

"E-Excuse me, w-would you like to dance?"

_Shit_.

That was only one of the many colourful words flying through the dark prince's mind as he realized, or rather remembered what he had done.

Sure, he didn't return Shirley's feelings, but that didn't mean that he wanted to break her heart; something which he had most probably achieved with what he had done not ten minutes ago. The fact that he hadn't done it intentionally didn't stop him from cursing himself into the very depths of hell and back.

Slowly, he turned around, only to see the girl that he thought would be heartbroken at this point smiling at him shyly. The dark prince could tell that it was forced, but still, he had to give her credit.

"I...Sure," he replied, internally cursing a certain blonde for telling Shirley who he was behind the mask. With that, he led the girl to the dancefloor.

As they reached said dancefloor, the band had just begun to play a slow paced song, which both teens settled in to.

Lelouch tried to act indifferent, as if he hadn't just most likely broken the heart of the girl he was currently dancing with.

They kept on dancing, ignoring the glances that were sent their way, before the question that Lelouch had anticipated, but had yet to find an answer to, was voiced by the orangette, "S-So...who was that girl?"

The dark prince sighed as he regarded her face, which was etched with a multitude of emotions.

Hurt, confusion, regret; the whole program was being mixed and tossed around in her olive eyes.

"...A person very dear to me," Lelouch replied, as that was the only answer he could come up with that wouldn't reveal too much about C.C., nor implicate that the woman he had danced with so passionately and kissed had been someone he had met right then and there.

"I-I see," the orangette said, feeling tears starting to percolate in her eyes as she tried to hide her face from her not-so-secret crush, who had interrupted the dance in order to comfort her, worry and a slight bit of regret evident in his violet orbs.

Keyword, tried.

Turning on her heel, the orangette quickly started to make her way out of the ballroom.

_Damn it, _Lelouch cursed inwardly,_ what the hell should I have said?!_

He attempted to take after the fleeing form of Shirley, but was quickly halted by none other than the person that had brought all this about.

That wasn't to say that Lelouch wasn't grateful to her anyway; he wouldn't have remotely known what to do after he had gotten the girl to listen to him.

"Sorry," the student council president started, regretting to have told Shirley who Lelouch was, "I'll go talk to her." Normally, Milly and regret didn't fit together all too well, but even she hadn't anticipated this. How could she have known that Lelouch actually had a girlfriend? Of course, plenty of female, and possibly even some male students were more than willing to take that position, but her friend never paid attention to them.

The dark prince sighed and muttered a silent thank you, before deciding to quickly and silently head for his room, not really feeling like staying at the ball any longer.

**The next morning**

Lelouch, Rolo, C.C. and Clovis were currently in the dark prince's room, sitting on the couch and staring at the flickering screen of the TV with barely contained amusement.

The reason for that amusement was the 'shocking' and 'tear-jerking' news that was currently being broadcasted throughout all of Area Eleven.

Clovis La Britannia, third prince of the Britannian empire and viceroy of Area Eleven, was found dead in his personal transport; murdered, by none other than the son of the last prime minister of Japan and honorary Britannian, Suzaku Kururugi.

Little did the purist faction and the rest of Britannia know that said prince was currently sitting on a couch, chewing a mouthful of cereal, the expression on his face turning more and more amused with every word the reporter spoke.

The group guffawed as margrave Jeremiah Gottwald appeared on the screen, holding a speech about how he and the other purebloods regretted their prince's death, but were determined to carry on his legacy.

"I have to say," Clovis tried to suppress his laughter, if only for a few moments, "This is rather amusing." The containment of his laughter didn't last long as he fell into another fit of laughter.

His half-brother was in a similar state as he put on an expression of sorrow and regret; given, the two would have been more believable had he been able to control himself a little more.

"Clovis, no!" He started in an overly dramatic voice, gaining even more laughter from his companions, "What a sad day!" The demon emperor slumped back into the recliner he was sitting on, doubling over in laughter, much like the other three people in the room.

The group of four kept on howling and laughing for another ten minutes, before the laughter slowly died down to a few chuckles and giggles here and there.

C.C. was the one to speak up, "It seems like my 'clone' held out." Sure, she had said that it would, but in all honesty, the immortal witch wasn't quite sure about whether it would've sustained itself long enough or not herself. After all, she didn't use this aspect of her powers too often.

"Yeah, it would've been weird if Clovis' body just vanished without a trace," Rolo commented from where he was sitting.

"Really, though," the former viceroy wiped a tear from his eye as he tried to catch his breath, "Why did that honorary Britannian get arrested?"

Obviously, that person had absolutely nothing to do with his 'murder'. The real culprit, for lack of a better term, was the green-haired witch who was currently sitting on the couch next to him. Then again, why did he care? It wasn't like the life of an honorary Britannian would matter to him, but the few days he had spent with his brother and his two companions had really affected the former viceroy.

Unlike what many people thought, he actually disliked the position of viceroy, being content to stay with his family and paint in his atelier; something he had been denied for quite a while, as the public appearances, paperwork and tours of Area Eleven had kept him busy and without much free time. The sole reason he became viceroy in the first place was due to Lelouch and Nunnally's supposed death all those years ago.

Lelouch looked at his brother for a moment, admiring the fact that the former viceroy wasn't completely unable to care for anyone but himself. "Don't worry about that, we'll get him out of there," the dark prince replied with a smirk, not really worried in the least that Suzaku would be executed, since he did manage to save him last time.

That wasn't to say that he would be careless in the planning of his rescue-mission this time around.

Checking the clock that was hanging on one of the walls in his room, he found out that is was about time for class. Normally, he wouldn't have gone, but with Clovis' 'murder', classes would be cancelled anyway, save for the speech that would be held in honor of their deceased prince.

A chuckle escaped his lips as that thought.

Rolo and C.C. noticed the confused look on Clovis' face as he regarded his brother, most probably wondering why they would save that honorary Britannian that was accused of murdering him.

"That person is a friend of Lelouch," the prince turned to the brown-haired teen as he continued to elaborate, "His family took in Lelouch and Nunnally after they were sent to Japan as political hostages."

"Yes, and that's the reason we'll be rescuing that idiot tonight." With that, the demon emperor was gone.

**Interrogation room**

"Do you know anything about this weapon, Suzaku Kururugi?"

Suzaku Kururugi, honorary Britannian, was currently sitting on an uncomfortable, wooden chair to which he was tied to; of course, the fact that he was restrained by a straight jacket and had been beaten up rather harshly didn't help to relieve him of that discomfort.

"It was the one used to rob prince Clovis of his life," Jeremiah Gottwald stated coldly as he looked at Suzaku in contempt. The margrave knew that Suzaku was innocent, but in order to put an end to the practice of granting natives the status of honorary Britannians, the person infront of him had to be found guilty of prince Clovis' murder.

Said person was currently looking at the gun with empty eyes, which was lying on the table in a plastic bag. The bag itself had a tag attached to one corner, which read 'Article of Evidence No.2'.

"We've verified it based on the markings on the bullet." The margrave sneered at him, "We've also done a little homework on you; you're the eldest child of Japan's last acting prime minister, are you not?"

The margrave and the various soldiers present didn't notice the look of pain that flashed across Suzaku's face for a fraction of a second as he tried to suppress the memories that arose with the mention of his father, Genbu Kururugi.

"Your motives here are clear!"

That was it for the young Japanese; his father being the late prime minister of Japan was a clear motive? The young man snapped at the margrave, "You're wrong! I've never even laid eyes on that gun!"

One of the soldiers roughly kicked his chair, knocking him over along with it as Jeremiah looked down on him, the arrogance and contempt etched deeply into his face as he stated, "We've found your fingerprints all over this weapon."

As if that lie and accusation wasn't bad enough, the margrave decided to put the icing on Suzaku's proverbial shitcake, "And you're also suspected of murdering members of the royal guard."

Suzaku couldn't believe what he was hearing; not only was he accused of murdering prince Clovis, but also of murdering the royal guard? This day just seemed to be getting better and better...

"Come clean now, and you'll be judged as though you were born a Britannian," Jeremiah's voice took on an almost disgusted tone as he spat out the next words, "Not some worthless Eleven!"

Anger rose up in the young man as he heard the margraves last sentence. Even though he was loyal to Britannia, he couldn't suppress the anger that arose with his people being referred to as some kind of sickness or disease, "You're wrong! I've done nothin-"

Suzaku never got to finish the sentence as the soldier closest to him gave him a swift kick to the face, effectively knocking him out.

**Kouzuki Resistance Cell HQ**

"That's why we should've issued a freaking statement sooner; we could've taken credit for it!" Shinichiro Tamaki shouted at the current leader of their resistance group before storming out of said leader's room, slamming the door behind him.

They had just heard the news of Clovis' death by the hand of honorary Britannian, Suzaku Kururugi.

Now, on one hand, the death of the viceroy of Area Eleven was good news for the resistance cell, as the loss of their 'beloved' viceroy would be a huge hit for the Britannians, and would weaken their forces in Area Eleven, if only for a short period of time.

On the other hand, however, as Tamaki had so politely pointed out (insert sarcasm here), they could have taken credit for the prince's murder.

In doing so, they would, firstly, have had a great boost of morale among the Japanese that fought against their oppressors, and secondly, people would've begun to take the resistance cell more seriously; as much as they hated to admit it, right now, they were little more than a nuisance.

A barely noticeable thorn in the side of the Britannian empire.

Kaname Ohgi sighed and turned to the small picture frame that was standing on his desk.

For him, it was a picture of better times, when his best friend and Kallen's older brother, Naoto Kouzuki, had still been alive.

The picture showed Kallen, Naoto and himself near a river stream; they were out picknicking, if he remembered correctly. Kallen was holding a can of soda in each hand, Ohgi had a towel around his neck and Naoto was sitting on a large rock, a smile playing aross his lips.

With another sigh, Ohgi spoke in a tired voice, "Naoto...I'm not cut out for this..."

Naoto had been a great leader in his time; he was admired by everyone in their resistance cell and had their complete respect and trust.

In Ohgi's eyes, Naoto had had everything one needed to be a leader.

Something that the current leader of the resistance cell was certain he would never be able to achieve, "I'm no leader..."

**'Camelot' reasearch facility**

"Aww, we've lost the most crucial part of the equation..." Lloyd Asplund whined as he and Cécile looked up at the impressive piece of engineering that the seventh generation Knightmare Frame 'Lancelot' represented.

"Can we do it without him?" Cécile knew it was a stupid question, as no other devicer would be able to pilot the Lancelot to its near full potential, which was an impressive feat in and of itself.

The earl of pudding shook his head, "Don't I wish..." He spoke in a displeased tone, having lost the perfect devicer for his Lancelot.

"The other units never let go of a good pilot." Which was true, since it was difficult to find exeptionally skilled Knightmare pilots.

"And even if we got one, they'd never match his readings...his operational efficiency clocked in at ninety-four percent and you want to replace him?"

A score that high was very rare for Knightmare pilots, even among the less complex, earlier models of Knightmare Frames. Considering the Lancelot was still a prototype, it was all the more impressive of Suzaku to score that high. Not to mention the fact that he had never piloted a Knightmare Frame before; the battle at Shinjuku Ghetto being his first time.

"You should tell them that, perhaps they'll let him go..."

Lloyd had thought about that aswell, but had quickly discarded the idea, "He's an honorary Britannian, they'd never listen."

The earl of pudding continued to gaze at the Lancelot, "Ever since general Bartley's disgrace, the purebloods have the military in an iron grip." Lloyd elaborated what Jeremiah Gottwald was aiming to do, now that prince Clovis was dead. He and the rest of the purist faction were against the practice of granting natives the title of honorary Britannians. In their eyes, one of there own would never betray them, or commit a crime against Britannia.

"What about Suzaku?" Cécile asked, generally worried about the young Japanese, unlike Lloyd who saw Suzaku as nothing else but a key piece of the Lancelot. Not that the eccentric scientist cared much for anyone in general.

"His fate's all but decided..."

**Ashford academy**

The whole academy had just been informed of prince Clovis' death, and, just as last time, a speech was held in comemoration of their viceroy. Most of the students genuinely regretted the death of the prince, but Kallen and Lelouch didn't care.

The latter of the two didn't have any reason to partake in the mourning, as he knew that his older brother was perfectly fine.

The ace Knightmare pilot, on the other hand, was still skeptical about the viceroy's death; was it really Suzaku Kururugi? Or was it the mysterious person that referred to himself as Zero?

Which brought her to meeting she would have with him in a few hours.

That thought raised even more questions, but Kallen decided to push them aside for now as she headed out of the school grounds, her face set in an impassive expression. She would have enough time to ask 'Zero' any questions she had, provided he would be willing to answer them.

"So, you got anything goin' on later?" Now that classes had been cancelled, all the students had the rest of the day free. Rivalz and Lelouch were currently on their way out of the school, having nothing else to do there. Not like the latter would've stayed even if they had classes...

Rivalz spoke excitedly, "How about we go gambling? I heard the folks wanted a rematch!"

The dark prince was about to decline, before a thought struck him; something that had been screaming and shouting at him, but had gone unheard by the dark prince as it was locked in the back of his mind, drowned out by all the other thoughts that were going through his head in the past few days.

His bank account.

Rivalz was surprised as his friend stopped, and turning around, he noticed that it seemed like someone had smacked him in the face with a cast-iron pan.

After a few moments, the dark prince's mind rebooted as he began cursing under his breath, which served to confuse his friend even more as he walked back to the demon emperor.

"Uh, Lelouch, you alright, buddy?" He was snapped out of his grumbling as Rivalz waved his hand infront of him in an attempt to pull him out of his thoughts, whatever the hell they were.

"Oh, sorry, I was just thinking about who I should play against," the demon emperor lied quickly; he was actually thinking about whether he had enough time to go gambling or not. Pleasantly surprised, he found out that he did indeed have enough time for atleast a few games.

"Really?!" Rivalz's shout of excitement startled a few student that they passed, "Great, let's go!"

WIth a chuckle, Lelouch followed after his friend, who had quickened his pace in anticipation.

They just reached the school's main doors as the dark prince noticed an orange-haired girl standing there, fidgeting nervously.

"Hey, Shirley!" Rivalz called, startling the girl as she turned around, only to find Rivalz and and her crush heading towards her, or rather the main doors of the school. Regardless, she quickly put on a smile.

_Don't mess up, don't mess up, _that was the mantra repeating itself again and again in the mind of the demon emperor as he approached the girl that meant so much to him. Even though he didn't return her feelings, she was still one of the people, of which there weren't many, that knew almost everything about him and accepted it.

Hell, she even loved him after finding out that he had killed her father and that he was the leader of, atleast in the eyes of many Britannians, a terrorist group.

"Hey, Shirley," Lelouch greeted with a smile. Internally, however, he was anything but smiling, '_hey, Shirley?', really?_

"Hey, you two," she replied with a smile of her own, though, just as last night, the demon emperor could tell it was forced, albeit not as much as that one. Even Rivalz could tell that something was wrong, but he had no idea what happened between the two.

With a sigh, the dark prince decided to drop the charade, "Listen, Shirley, about las-"

Much to his surprise, the orangette interrupted him with another smile, "Don't worry about it, Lulu," this time, her smile was genuine, though one could still see a little pain and hurt in her eyes as she spoke, "Really, I was just overreacting." Truth was, she was still heartbroken by the fact that Lelouch had a girlfriend, but she didn't want him to be worried over that. After all, she wanted him to be happy.

Another sigh was let out by Lelouch, though one of relief as he ran a hand through his midnight-black hair, "...Thanks, Shirley."

The orange-haired girl gave him another smile before blinking, and looking at her two friends with a stern gaze, "You two aren't going gambling, are you?"

Rivalz, who was still trying to figure out what happened between the two, shook himself out of his thoughts, "...Yeah, we are."

"Lulu! What did I tell you about gambling? You could get yourself in trouble!"

The dark prince blinked, before chuckling; the orangette had turned back to her old self. He remembered all the times the girl had reprimanded him for his gambling addictions, warning him time and time again of the trouble he could get himself in to.

Ironically enough, he didn't gamble for the money, but rather for fun; the dark prince loved having a challenge, especially in chess, as the only person that could ever beat him was his older half-brother, Schneizel.

Atleast, that's how it was before C.C. showed up; the money for her addiction of pizza had to come from somewhere, after all.

"Yes, you did tell me, Shirley," the dark prince said in a warm tone, causing a slight blush to crawl across Shirley's face. "I promise you, we won't get into any trouble."

A quick glance to Rivalz had the teen nodding discreetly before he smiled at his friend, "You know, I think she's right, Lelouch, we really should stop gambling."

This time, it was Shirley's turn to blink at the two, her expression turning into a deadpan as Lelouch joined his friend, "Yeah, I guess you're right; we really could get into trouble..."

...

"Wha...?"

As Lelouch kept on distracting Shirley, explaining his sudden change of mind, Rivalz pulled out his cellphone and dialed Milly's number, discreetly enough for the orangette not to notice.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Milly," the teen whispered into his cellphone as he turned away from the Shirley and Lelouch a slight bit to avoid being found out, "Lelouch wants to ask you a favor."

The student council president blinked before shrugging; after all that happened last night, a small favor for her friend would be no problem, "Sure, go ahead."

"Ok, well..."

A devious smile spread across her face as Rivalz quickly told her what Lelouch wanted.

Said person was still talking to Shirley, who still wasn't convinced of his sudden change of heart.

Suddenly, the speakers of the school crackled to life.

The student council presidents voice could be heard from them as she spoke, "Attention female student body, Lelouch Lamperouge has agreed to go on a date with anyone that will reach him within the next two minutes," the male students shivered as they could practically feel the devious smirk on their presidents face, "He's currently at the front entrance of the school."

The various female students looked at each other for a moment, before exploding into one, massive squeal and racing towards the front entrance in speeds that would put a certain Jamaican sprinter to shame.

_Three, two, one..._ As the dark prince finished his mental countdown, he quickly grabbed Rivalz and sprinted out the entrance, leaving a confused orangette to stand there with a blank face.

Her confusion didn't last long, as she saw a veritable tsunami of female students storming into the small hall that was the front entrance of the school, screaming and shouting excitedly about 'Lelouch Lamperouge' and 'dates'.

Realizing where she was standing, the orangette's eyes widened before she turned to run out the entrance.

Too bad it was already too late.

The crowd of girls crashed into her, carrying the girl with them out the entrance, all the while searching for their target with keen eyes.

As she was carried out into the open with that impromptu crowd-surfing session, Shirley's eyebrow twitched violently, "LULU!"

"Sorry, Shirley," the dark prince smiled ruefully as he sat into the passenger seat of Rivalz's motorbike.

**Babel tower**

"So, who do you want to play against?"

The two teens had just reached Babel tower, and were currently looking for an opponent for Lelouch to play against.

"I'm not sure," the demon emperor scanned the casino for possible opponents, until his eyes widened slightly as he discovered someone all-too-familiar.

There was no doubt about it; that blonde hair and that superior grin plastered on his face...the Black King. Lelouch's fist clenched as he saw him kicking an Eleven that was cowering on the floor; it seemed like the poor man had spilled a drink the Black King had ordered.

Rivalz had apperantly followed his gaze to the old man as he quickly grabbed his shoulder, "You sure you want to play against him, buddy?" The dark prince could hear the worry in his voice as he continued, "I heard he's an excellent Chess Player...and a member of the mafia."

Chuckling, the demon emperor replied, "You underestimate me, Rivalz." With that, he headed for the old man that was still beating up the Eleven, and judging by the smug grin on his face, feeling damn proud of it.

"How pitiful."

The Black King looked up, only to see a high school student looking at him with a challenging yet cool gaze. Interrupting his 'rightful' beating of the Eleven, the Black King stood up to his full height and growled at the highschool student, who was either one of three things.

_Very _brave, completely stupid, or just unknowing of who he was.

Either way, he would make sure to teach this punk a lesson.

"What did you say, _boy_?" The waiter used the distraction to quickly scurry away as the the Black King glared at the student.

"Didn't you hear me? I said that what you were doing was pitiful."

At this point, a small crowd of patrons had assembled around the two, observing amusedly as the highschool student continued to dig his own grave.

"Why you little..." The Black King cocked his fist back and launched it at Lelouch.

Said person was surprised, along with the Black King and the rest of the crowd as he dodged it in one swift and graceful movement, barely registering his Geass fading slowly from his eyes, indicating that it had been activated at some point.

With a smirk, he quickly recovered from the surprise and filed it away for later, "How about we settle this with a game of chess?"

Another growl emanated from the Black Kings throat, but he decided to humor him, for the crowd's sake if for nothing else, "What's your wager?"

The smirk on his face widened dangerously, "If I win, all the money you have on you...and if you win, my life."

"That's hardly a fair wager!" The Black King barked with barely suppressed rage, "My money for your worthless life?!"

"Are you worried you'll lose?" As the old man infront of him twitched, Lelouch knew he had won.

"Don't get too cocky, _boy_," a similar smirk spread across his opponents face as he agreed, confidence etching his features; confidence that would soon be wiped from his face.

**Later...**

"Checkmate."

The calm statement shook Lelouch's opponent, the Black King, out of his daze. The man had been staring at the chessboard in disbelief, not even registering the fact that he had lost.

A chuckle from the dark prince caused the Black King to glare at the youth infront of him.

"It seems the king has been beaten by the prince." The man's glare increased in intensity, his fists clenched as he tried to vehemently deny the truth.

The fact that he had been beaten; by a highschool student nonetheless.

Said student had already collected his money, starting to leave the tower with his friend next to him, who was congratulating him on beating the Black King with a cheerful expression.

"This isn't over yet!" The man roared as he jumped up from his seat, knocking over the table and running after the ebony-haired youth.

The demon emperor turned around and fixed the man with a cool gaze. Said man froze on the spot as Lelouch activated his Geass and issued his command with an evil smirk, "Go sit down, drinks are on you for today."

_That should leave you with quite a dent in your account... _an evil smirk spread across his face as he thought about the amount of money he'd have to pay the next day.

The Black King nodded dumbly and made his way back to his seat, causing the onlookers to stare at him with gaping mouths.

"Didn't you hear? Drinks are on him today; enjoy yourselves!" The dark prince called as he swung his arm out, shaking the crowd out of their thoughts, which were all along the lines of, 'how the hell did he do that?!'.

The patrons began to cheer and shout, rushing to the bar to order drinks as the two teens left the club, a smirk adorning both their faces.

**Ashford estate**

"How was school?" The question came from the immortal witch as Lelouch entered his room. Said person shook his head as he stripped off his jacket, "Shocking; Clovis died."

That reminded C.C. and Rolo of the news this morning, and caused both to laugh a little.

"Anyway, have you been gambling already? I haven't eaten pizza all day." Evidently, as her stomach growled at the mention of her favourite food.

Her reply came in form of a credit card thrown at her, "As a matter of fact," the demon smirked at his witch as she caught the credit card with a bright smile on her face, "I have been gambling."

Lelouch was slightly surprised as she jumped up from the couch, ran towards him and kissed him deeply before jumping back onto it with the phone already in her hand.

"Anyway, Rolo, we'll be leaving in a bit." He had yet to arrange for his Zero outfit to be made, and another two outfits for Clovis and Rolo. C.C. didn't need one, just as last time.

She would reveal herself either way, as the witch was willful to a fault. Memories of their first few encounters resurfaced, such as the time when he was speaking to Kallen at school, and the immortal witch decided to nonchalantly twirl around and dance right behind the red-head, causing Lelouch to act as if he wanted to kiss the ace Knightmare pilot.

"Sure," Rolo smirked, "It'll be great fighting alongside you again, big brother."

With a smile, the dark prince walked over to his younger brother and ruffled his hair, gaining an annoyed yet harmless glare from him, "Hey, come on, stop it!"

"I never had a brother I could do this to, so shut up!" While Rolo was indeed his brother for one year, he was the brother of Lelouch Lamperouge and not Lelouch Vi Britannia. So, while the time they spent together was real in one aspect, in another aspect, it wasn't.

The two brothers continued their antics even as they fell off the sofa, causing the immortal witch, who had finished ordering her pepperoni pizzas by now to smile at the siblings.

"You two should leave now if you want to be there on time," she said, still amused by the two's antics.

Stopping his hair-ruffling, the dark prince looked up at her and then at the clock, "You're right, we should leave now, Rolo."

The teen stood up and rubbed his head, "Sure, but," the brown-haired teen furrowed his brow in thought, "what do you need me to do, big brother?"

"You've got to pick up your outfit." Originally, he wanted to get the one for Clovis, too, but with two outfits, they just didn't have enough time today.

"You have fun with your pizza, witch," the demon emperor stood up as well and wrapped his arms around the immortal witch, closing the distance between them and kissing her.

A kiss which was eagerly returned by the immortal beauty.

After a few moments, they parted and the demon emperor gave her another quick peck before letting go of her.

"Let's go, Rolo."

With a nod from his brother, the two left for Tokyo tower.

**Tokyo tower, 4:00 PM**

"Britannia's resounding victory over Japan opened the unenlightened nations eyes to its true place in todays world order."

_What a load of crap_, Kallen stadtfeld thought with a scowl as the woman's narration of the 'glorious' war that Britannia had fought continued.

"Since then, the empire and Area Eleven have walked hand in hand down the road to revival."

Well, revival in the most relative sense of speaking. Britannia had built their city over Japan, leaving the natives with nothing more than a small area of destroyed and decrepit land. Basically, a huge ghetto.

"It was Kururugi that contacted us, wasn't it?" Kent Sugiyama asked as they examined the many relics of war in the exhibition that Tokyo tower had become.

"Hard to say..." Ohgi replied; he had thought about the possibility of Suzaku Kururugi being Zero, but it just didn't feel right to him; why would an honorary Britannian kill the viceroy? Yes, he was Japanese, but it would've made more sense for him to stay in the military and climb up the ranks before his assassination of prince clovis; that way, he could've even gotten away with it.

Another member of their group, Toru Yoshida, threw in another possiblity, "Maybe he was arrested after his communication with Kallen."

If that was true, it could be a trap, as Sugiyama had already deduced, "Then we are in danger here; we should go."

Just as the three were about to turn around to get Kallen and leave, a voice spoke through the speakers in the exhibition, "Paging miss Kallen Stadtfeld of Ashford academy; one of your personal belongings has been handed in for you to pick up."

The three men turned around to see Kallen gone.

"Is something wrong? It is yours, isn't it?" The young woman at the kiosk asked Kallen after she handed her 'her' cellphone.

"Ah, yeah, thank you," the red-head replied as she examined the phone.

The ace Knightmare pilot headed out to the panoramic view of what used to be Tokyo, absently noting that Ohgi and the others were there already, speaking highly of prince Clovis in order to blend in with the Britannian crowd.

A moment later, the phone that she had received began to buzz, the caller ID displayed as 'Zero'.

Looking over to Ohgi, she received a dicreet nod from the leader of the resistance group, after which she accepted the call.

"Um, hello?"

"Board the train at loop line five, and seeing as you didn't come alone, bring your friends with you." With a smirk, the dark prince hung up and made his way to the station.

**Later...**

"Attention all passengers; if you become aware of any suspicious items on board, please alert metro personnel by using the nearest inter telephone."

Kallen looked around nervously at that announcement; the phone in her hand was just about as fitting to that description as possible.

The red-head was a little startled as said phone began to buzz in her hand again, before she quickly accepted the call and brought it up to her ear, "What now?"

"Face forward, and look to your right...what do you see?"

Kallen did as told and looked out the window at the Britannian city. She had to admit, if it weren't for it being built on what was their city and basically their blood and sweat, it would've been quite beautiful.

"The Britannian city; it was stolen away from us and built on our sacrifice..."

Zero chuckled, though low enough for the ace Knightmare pilot not to hear, "And on the left?"

Gazing out the left side of the train, she saw their city, a violent contrast to the Britannian one, with most of the 'city' destroyed, barren and desolate; one could hardly call it a city, as it had more semblance to ruins than anything.

"...I see our city, remnants of a desecated city, after the Britannians sucked it dry."

This time, Zero's chuckle could be heard quite well, "Good answer, as always."

The fiery red-head's eyes narrowed as she frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Nothing. Now, make your way to the front of the train." With that, the line was dead, and Kallen began to make for the front of the train, Ohgi and the others following behind.

As they passed the many people that were aboard the train, they couldn't help but feel that something was wrong...everyone was silent, not having any conversations, or even checking their cellphones.

The group of four quickly discarded those thoughts and continued to the front of the train.

As they reached the last cabin, the ace Knightmare pilot entered.

Kallen gasped as she was inside the cabin; a figure was sitting on a chair just infront of the door that led to the train's cockpit. Absently, she wondered how the person had gotten the chair into the train in the first place.

The other three members of her brothers resistance group entered a few moments after her.

Her curiosity was begging to be sated at this point as she asked, "Was it you on the phone?"

The figure made no notion to answer, calmly sitting there, his face hidden as he was looking down; the shadows that were cast into the train only helped to mask his form.

The ace Knightmare pilot finally asked the questions that were bothering her since the Shinjuku incident, such as, "Well, was that you in Shinjuku?!" Or, "Was that ceasefire your doing?!"

The figure looked up, and they could practically feel the smirk on his face, even though it was hidden by a mask.

Said mask consisted of a steel-grey metal frame, and a deep dark-blue visor, which covered his forehead and went down to just about his nose, leaving the lower part of his face uncovered save for a small, black metal device that was connected to the mask and covered his mouth, presumably the source of his slightly metallic and robotic voice.

A Geass symbol with a sword 'piercing' it was also visible on the left 'jaw' of the mask; the symbol of the Black Knights. The mask still had the slider system installed that had been present in the previous mask, but above both eyes rather than just one.

His mop of black hair went down to his shoulders, covering the rest of his head.

The rest of the outfit consisted of a dark blue cape with the same symbol as the mask on the back of it, and also a dark blue and black body suit, with metal plating covering the vital organs, tinted also in black and blue.

All in all, it was a slight bit bulkier than his old Zero outfit, but it was better suited for combat and still retained most the flexibility and agility that the old outfit allowed for.

"Does it matter?" Zero replied amusedly, idly regarding his gloved hand.

"Yes," Ohgi fixed him with a glare, that didn't faze the figure before him in the least, "Who are you?"

_Suspiscious as always, eh, Ohgi? _The dark prince thought, still thoroughly amused as he replied,"I am Zero, and that is all you need to know."

Deciding to drop this particular subject, the masked figure continued, "Now, tell me, what is it you fight for?"

The group looked at him curiously; wasn't that obvious? Still, Ohgi decided to reply, his eyes burning with determination, "We fight for Japan; to liberate it from their oppressors!"

Chuckling rang through the cabin as more than a few present began to glare at the source of the laugher, "What's so funny?!" Kallen demanded.

Quickly recovering from his fit of chuckling, Zero replied, "And you wish to achieve that with terrorism? Waging this petty war against the people?"

"What'd you say?!" Sugiyama barked; who was this guy to call their causes 'petty'?

The figure known as Zero turned to him languidly, "You heard me; this 'war' you're waging is nothing more than a nuisance in the eyes Britannia."

Kallen was seething at this point, just as the others, but contained herself.

"If you truly wish to free Japan, then raise your swords against Britannia itself, not the people; fight for justice!"

That was it for Kallen as she snapped, a scowl on her face, "That's easy for you to say, hiding behind that mask; why should we even trust you?!"

That was met with similar shouts from her companions, "Yeah, drop the mask!"

Zero spoke calmly, in an almost bored tone, "I do not have to do anything."

The four people stared at him in irritation as he continued, "You came here seeking me," he languidly waved his arm out, "I will show my power tonight, if you wish."

Ohgi considered it for a moment, "How will you show us?"

A smirk tugged at the corner of the dark prince's lips as he replied, "Tonight, Suzaku Kururugi will be brought to his court marshal; we will rescue him."

Just the concept of that idea seemed suicidal to the four; the escort would consist of the purist faction, and margrave Jeremiah Gottwald himself...they wouldn't stand a chance, even if Zero managed to supply them with Sutherlands or other Britannian military weapons.

"That's impossible!" Sugiyama called.

The figure before them simply chuckled again, "We shall see."

**Japan Liberation Front HQ**

Kyoshiro Tohdoh was not having a good day. Why were they still debating about something like this? In all honesty, not even he could do anything to save Suzaku Kururugi from his public execution. So, why was it that they were still arguing about this matter?

"He's an honorary Britannian!" Shouted one of the many soldiers in the room.

"Prime minister Kururugi was his father!" Claimed another.

Even their leader, Katase Tatewaki was still discussing this matter, with one of the more patriotic members, even for their standards, of the group, Josui Kusakabe.

"Tohdoh, what are your thoughts?" The leader of JLF turned to the 'miracle worker'.

With an internal sigh, he slowly raised his head, "We should not become involved in this public execution."

That internal sigh threatened to come out as Kusakabe spoke, "That's cowardly, you're Tohdoh the miracle worker, right?"

That was something he heard very often, and something that irked him to no end; just because he was called the 'miracle worker' didn't mean he could do anything. And especially not something as suicidal as this, "There's a difference between miracles and foolhardyness."

**Undisclosed location**

"I wonder..." Lelouch thought aloud, idly regarding his new mask, "Should I play it off as dramatic as last time?"

"I don't mind," the dark prince looked up to see Rolo, who had just put on his mask. It was a steel-grey and ornate Victorian ball mask. The rest of his outfit was similiar to that of Lelouch, but with greys and blacks, and less armor fitted onto it.

"Yeah, well, I thought I'd wrap it up a little this time around..." Sure, he liked flashy entrances and had a knack for theatrics, but replaying the same scenes over and over again lost its charm rather quickly.

Rolo looked thoughtful for a moment, before smiling at his older brother, "Let's go with flashy and dramatic, don't you think?" Being the demon prince's brother, Rolo had taken a liking to theatrics and drama aswell.

Putting on his mask with a chuckle, Zero replied, "Great, well, I'll see you later."

**Later...**

"And you're sure that this will work?"

Zero had just explained his plan to the two people that would join him during this rescue mission, but both of them were rather skeptical about driving right infront of the military convoy, with Britannia's deceased prince's personal transport nonetheless. They would be lucky to not be shot right on the spot, what with all the blatant provocation on their part.

"Yes, I am," Zero replied in his metallic voice as he inspected Clovis' car once more; just as last time, it wasn't exeptionally good work, but it would do.

"Well, then, let's begin," Zero turned to Kallen and Ohgi, "You two know what to do, right?"

They both nodded, and with that, the group of three began to set their plan in motion.

**Tokyo Bridge**

"Any moment now," the excited voice of the reporter was heard through the various TVs and radios, "it's a sight to see...the throngs lining the route, all of them waiting on bated breath." Large crowds of Britannians were standing on either side of the bridge, waiting for the murderer of their beloved prince to arrive with the purist-faction.

"Waiting for the accused murderer of prince Clovis to pass by; honorary Britannian and former Eleven, Suzaku Kururugi."

The execution would be broacasted live over all of Area Eleven, so that even the people at home could watch it.

"Camera five's a little slow, talk to me, Charles; you're team been deployed yet?" Diethard Ried called out over the microphone, checking the various screens and monitors that displayed the filming of the whole event from many different angles.

"What, the studio? Let 'em wait, nothing's been pushed back; everythings going according to plan." The man smirked as the camera angles on the monitors switched to capture the approaching convoy, "Here we go."

"I...I can see them, the suspect, Suzaku Kururugi is approaching!" The reporter announced.

Diethard turned off his communicator and scoffed, "What a circus, and I'm as corrupt as any of them." This was a prime example of the phrase, 'Don't believe everything you see in the media.'

As the convoy arrived, the people began to shout in scorn at the supposed murderer. If they only knew the truth. But none of that mattered to the person observing everything from afar. _Four Sutherlands with another four at the ready, _he smirked, though it wasn't visible as his mask covered his lips, "Perfect."

The convoy was lead by margrave Jeremiah Gottwald, who presided over the trial as acting-consul, standing atop his customised Sutherland and watching out for anything that could threaten the progression of the whole event with a keen eye.

"Acting-consul Jeremiah!" The voice was heard over the communicator Jeremiah was wearing, and he didn't like the tone of it.

"What is it?" He asked in slight annoyance.

"Vehicle approaching the main highway from third, we just let it through as you instructed, but," the voice seemed to hesitate, seemingly not sure of what to say and prompting Jeremiah to continue, "Do you believe the target could be a terrorist vehicle?"

"...Well, sir, it's prince Clovis' car..."

The margrave perked up, "The prince's car?" A smirk appeared on his face, "Well, looks like we've got a comedian." The smirk didn't leave his face as he ordered, "Don't worry about it, just let them through to us." With that, he turned back to the convoy and raised his hand in a universal stop signal, "All forces, stop here."

With a light screech, the whole convoy came to a halt and awaited further orders from the margrave, whose eyes were fixed on the white vehicle at the far end of the bridge, approaching the military convoy.

The crowd gasped as they saw what kind of vehicle it exactly was.

_This is madness, _Kallen thought as she drove prince Clovis' 'personal transport' up to the convoy. Given, she had every right to claim that this was madness, since it really was nothing else than madness.

Still, she did as Zero had told her to and stopped the car infront of the military convoy.

"You dare desecrate his highness' transport? Come out of there!" Jeremiah sneered.

Suddenly, the Britannian flag that was hanging down on top of the cockpit of the vehicle caught fire, and revealed a masked person behind it. Everyone present gasped at the sight of said person, who calmly stood there, as if he wasn't currently surrounded and outnumbered by a Britannian military convoy.

With a scowl, the margrave called out to the masked man, "Who are you?!"

The figure raised his head slightly, causing the visor of his mask to gleam as he spoke with a metallic and robotical voice, "I," he smirked, "Am Zero."

The crowd gasped again, and the news reporter spoke with his usual dramatic voice, "Who is this person?! This man calling himself Zero?!"

Everyone watching this fiasco speculated about who this person could be, before Diethard offered his own, almost poetical input, "Zero...what do you mean, like, nothing?"

_You've got to be kidding me, _Kallen thought, positive about the fact that they'd be blown to bits any second now.

Jeremiah frowned as the crowd began to show signs of panic, "I've seen enough, Zero, this little show of yours is over." With that, he pointed his gun up at the sky and shot, signaling for the other four Sutherlands of the purist faction to be deployed.

Much to the chagrin of the margrave, the masked man still wasn't fazed in the slightest as the four Sutherlands surrounded him and the vehicle.

"First things first, why don't you lose that mask?"

"I don't think so." With that, he snapped his fingers, and the exterior of the transport blew off, revealing a strange looking device; a device that Viletta Nu and Jeremiah Gottwald recognized immediately and all too well. The former shouted, "Jeremiah, be careful, he's got the-" the silver-haired woman quickly stopped herself from continuing, so as to not reveal its purpose to the crowd and cause a panic.

Suzaku's eyes widened as he, too recognized the contraption, "Wait, you don't unders-ugh!" His sentence was interrupted by the collar he was wearing, as it started to send electricity through his body.

Jeremiah couldn't believe his eyes, his body shaking slightly as he growled between clenched teeth, "You bastard..." Seeing it as the only chance, the margrave raised his gun and trained it at the figure known as Zero.

"Unit six, bring up the sound and get that camera right in his face!" Diethard demanded as he observed the whole fiasco from the monitors in the van.

"Sir, it's too hairy out here!"

With a frown, he grabbed one of the cameras that was lying on a table, "Tch, amateurs!"

"...Fine, what are your demands?" Normally, Jeremiah wouldn't bother negotiating with terrorists, but right now, that seemed like the only option, if he didn't want him to release the poison gas.

Smiling, Zero stated his demands, "This, for Kururugi."

The margrave's eyes widened before he barked, "Like hell; he's charged with high treason, I can't hand him over!"

Suddenly, the masked man began to laugh, almost maniacally, "You're wrong, Jeremiah!" He looked down at Diethard, who was holding a camera on his shoulder and filming him. The man smiled excitedly at Zero's next words.

"I murdered Clovis!"

'Shocked' was one of the many words to describe the crowd's and everyone else's state even as Zero continued to speak, "For a single man, you can save countless lives, Jeremiah."

_This...This is all one big performance to him! _A gleeful smile spread across his face as he continued to record the whole event.

"You're mad! You'll pay the price for mocking the crown!" As if that was an order, the Sutherlands trained their rifles on the masked man, who was still just as calm as ever.

"Careful, Jeremiah," Lelouch smiled as memories of his loyal subordinate resurfaced, "You don't wish the public to learn of Orange, do you?"

The margrave was confused, "Huh?"

Confusion was also evident in everyone else as they thought about what the hell this 'Zero' was talking about. The guards flanking Suzaku exchanged looks, "What the hell is he talking about?"

"I dunno'."

With two quick taps of his foot, the vehicle began to slowly move forward. _Time to leave, _the dark prince thought as he prepared himself. "Now, Jeremiah, I need you to do everything in your power to help us escape," Zero spoke with a devious smirk hidden behind his mask as the covers on the visor slid open and his Geass flared brightly.

The margrave, who had stared right into his eyes, fell under the spell of Lelouch's Geass, "Right, understood. You there, release the prisoner!"

_I take it back,_ the demon emperor chuckled, _it's still quite amusing_. That it was; seeing Jeremiah have a sudden change of mind and deciding to release Suzaku after all.

Zero had to refrain from laughing out as Jeremiah reprimanded Kewell as the latter protested, "Lord Kewell, this is an order!"

After repeating his orders again and again, with increasing agressiveness and added threats, the guards finally released Suzaku, fearing the consequences that would no doubt follow if they were to refuse the margrave's orders. The young Japanese quietly walked up to Zero, who along with his companion had exited the vehicle and was waiting for him.

As the honorary Britannian reached Zero, he asked, "So, who the hell are you?" Doing what it was designed for, the collar activated itself and shocked him once again, causing him to wince in pain.

"That doesn't matter right now," with a smirk, he grabbed Suzaku and pulled out a small device with a button on it, _all that matters now, is that we get out of here._

"Let's go."

After the masked man pressed the button, the device on Clovis' personal transport hissed to life before opening and releasing a large, pink-violet cloud of smoke. With that, the three quickly ran to the edge of the bridge and jumped down, Suzaku doubting the man's sanity as they free fell down into the city.

Chaos had ensued on said bridge as the crowds of Britannian's ran from what they assumed was poison gas, none of them eager to stay there and confirm their assumptions. Villetta Nu cursed under her breath as she quickly braced her Knightmare's rifle and aimed at where she thought Zero was.

Just as the Britannian noble woman was about to shoot, Jeremiah appeared next to her, also in his Sutherland, and quickly slammed the rifle out of her Frame's hands.

"Lord Jeremiah, what are you doing?!" Her protests went of deaf ears as the margrave fixed her Knightmare with an insane glare from within the cockpit, "You heard me! Stand down, now!"

Meanwhile, Zero, along with Suzaku and Kallen had landed on the stong fabric that was strung to the two slash harkens of the MR-1 that was underneath the bridge and piloted by Ohgi.

Said man had a look on his face that was a mix of joy and disbelief as he watched the three forms land on the fabric, which was stretched down greatly due to the force and weight being applied. Still, it held out, which caused the smile on Ohgi's face to grow even larger, "It worked! Now we ca-"

The smile was quickly wiped off his face as his MR-1 was destroyed in mere seconds; it wasn't designed for combat, and offered no protection at all against the hail of bullets that it was showered with. Luckily for him, the third generation Frame atleast had an ejection system built in, which proved its worth as the cockpit was blown out of what was left of the Knightmare.

"You imbecile, there's nowhere for you to run!" With a frown, Kewell raised his rifle and aimed for the cockpit; attempting to finish off whoever it was inside it.

And 'attempting' was all he did.

Much like with Villetta earlier, before he got a chance to shoot, he found a rifle currently trained at him, his comm-unit transmitting the dangerous voice that spoke in a tone that clearly and in bright, neon colours said, 'Obey me, or die.'

"Lord Kewell, are you going to follow orders or not?!"

Kewell Soresi was currently doubting the sanity of his superior, what with releasing their prisoner so easily and going as far as to help them escape rather...agressively.

"All units, do I make myself clear?! Do everything in your power to help them get away!"

Unbeknownst to Jeremiah, and everyone else, Zero was intercepting their communication line, laughing loudly as he listened to Jeremiah who he would've deemed mad had he not known why the margrave was acting this way. _I'll make sure to have you listen to this once you're at my side again, Jeremiah, _the dark prince thought with amusement as he saved the conversation, or rather him threatening them with death or worse, between Jeremiah and his subordinates.

**Unknown location**

Zero was currenty sitting on a piece of debris in an old, abandoned theater that was once no doubt a popular location for the Japanese to come enjoy themselves. But now, it was nothing more than a ruin; decrepit and barely recognizable due to the large amounts of debris covering it, that were once the the roof of the theater.

Below him was the his first friend and the person he had saved no half an hour ago, staring at him with suspicous and hard eyes.

"Suzaku Kururugi," the young man's eyes narrowed slightly, "After today, do you still have faith in that excuse of a monarchy that Britannia is?"

Ignoring his question, Suzaku asked him instead, "So, was it really you that murdered prince Clovis?"

With a small chuckle, the masked figure replied, "Yes, I guess you could say I did." Which wasn't far from the truth, as he had killed Clovis; just not in this 'timeline'.

The honorary Britannian's eyes narrowed even further, "And what about the poison gas? Those were civilians!"

After another small fit of chuckling, Zero replied, "Harmless, coloured smoke."

As he said that, Suzaku relaxed visibly, _So, all those people..._

A smile spread across the masked figures face_, still as good-natured as ever, Suzaku._

The dark prince discarded that though, "Now, I think your court marshal is awaiting you."

...Was that what he had saved him for?

Suzaku blinked, and blinked again. He had extensive military training, which included simulations of situations like these, where one would be taken hostage by the enemy. In most, if not all of such scenarios, the prisoner would be tortured for information, or given a chance to join the enemy, if they were inclined to do so.

Considering all that, Suzaku's next words came as no surprise, "...you don't want me to join you, or atleast take me prisoner?"

Those sounded like much more logical reasons to rescue him in what could've turned out to be a suicidal mission.The man simply waved him off, "Of course not," the smirk that spread across his face was hidden from Suzaku, "By announcing that I murdered Clovis, the charges against you will be dropped, and you will be a free man once again." Without willing it do so, his Geass flared wildly, hidden behind his visor, "Besides...you will join me one day, that much I can guarantee you."

An unpleasant shiver ran down Suzaku's spine, but he replied with a firm voice, "I thank you for going through such lengths to save me, but," he glared at the dark figure, "I will never join you." With that, the honorary Britannian started to make his way out of the theater.

...

"Suzaku."

Not bothering to turn around, he responded, "What?"

Another faint smirk crossed the dark prince's lips, "Wouldn't it seem more likely to you that Clovis realized what a farce Britannia was, and so decided to join me?"

After Zero finished the sentence, the young Japanese's eyes went wide and he whirled around, only to find the dark and mysterious figure gone.

"Man, I didn't think he would be able to do it," one of the members of the Kouzuki resistance cell stated as he stared off into nothing. Even though Suzaku Kururugi was an honorary Britannian, he was still a Japanese by birth and blood. Saving him, and revealing himself to be the real culprit behind Clovis' murder sure was something.

"Tch, anyone could've pulled a bluff like that," Tamaki huffed, staring into space aswell, though with a much more annoyed look marring his face; he still didn't trust this 'Zero' guy. Ironically enough, he would become Zero's biggest admirer and self-proclaimed best friend in due time.

Ohgi, the current leader of the group replied, "Still, you've got to give the man credit." All the members present turned to him, looking at him curiously as he continued, "No-one else could've pulled that off; not the JLF and definitely not us."

That much even Tamaki had to admit, whether he trusted the masked man or not.

_Just who is this guy? _Kallen wondered, staring off into space as she considered all the possibilities that had been opened up with Zero on their side, if the mission before was anything to go by.

She sighed; it had been a long time since they had achieved such a victory.

**Ashford estate**

"I'm back," Lelouch yawned as he entered the the dining room, finding quite a surprising sight before him.

Clovis was painting on a canvas that was set up next to the table, with Nunnally sitting beside him, smiling as their brother told her what he was painting.

The two looked up, and Nunnally was the first to greet him in her usual cheerful manner, "Welcome back, big brother!"

"Hey, Nunnally," he smiled, before looking at Clovis and smirking at him, "Hey, _big brother."_

The former viceroy stood up and walked over to his brother, leaning in closely and whispering into his ear, "I have to admit, you handled everything quite well." His answer came in form of another smirk as he replied, "Thanks."

With that, he walked over to the painting of a beautiful landscape, and whistled, "I had forgotten how good of a painter you were." The former viceroy was indeed a very talented artist.

"I wonder how you forgot that," he replied with pride and just a hint of arrogance. Yeah, he was definitely still the Clovis Lelouch and Nunnally knew and loved.

The dark prince smiled ruefully, "My bad."

After a glance at the clock, the demon emperor decided to head to his room; it had been quite a tiring day.

If he remembered correctly, C.C. would've been here with Nunnally if it went just as last time. He discarded that thought and bent down and kissed Nunnally's forehead, "Goodnight, Nunnally."

"Good night, Lelouch," she replied in a loving tone; it had been a long time since she had last seen her brother Clovis, and she was still thankful to Lelouch for returning him to them. The way she saw it, was that they were both happier with him here.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Clovis."

The former viceroy, who was back to painting just waved him off, being deeply immersed in his work.

_I'll really have to talk to them about this, _the dark prince thought as he activated his Geass. What was going on with it? Earlier at Babel tower, it activated on its own, and he dodged that punch that would've no doubt struck him. With a shrug, he decided to talk to C.C. and his brothers tomorrow; it wasn't like the changes were detrimental, atleast up until now.

As Lelouch approached his room, a terrifying thought struck him, causing him to quicken his pace to a run until he reached the room to his door, which opened with that familiar hissing sound.

Relief washed over him as he found his room to be more or less in the same state he left it in; in other words, not a maze of stacked pizza boxes.

It wasn't until now that he actually realized how exhausted he was. Moving to his bed, in which a green-haired woman was lying and sleeping peacefully, he dropped onto it with a dull, muffled thud, not even bothering to take off his clothes as he draped one arm around the still form of his lover and quickly drifted off into a well deserved slumber.

**Another long chapter; I'm slowly getting the hang of these.**

**Thanks again to Tartyoab for proofreading, and, as always, reviews are very much appreciated.**


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